Multiply my weekend by 300 million and you will have in one incident a neat little package of the things that are really wrong in our country that make the Angry White Mom really angry. Let me give you the back story:
I have lived in rural Texas for most of my life. For fifteen years I have lived at a state park in Texas where my husband David has served with distinction as park manager. Over the years we have seen hundreds of stray animals, cats and dogs, goats and even the occassional emu (yes, emu) dumped by the public. On many occasions, depending on age, health, and personality, we have taken in animals and found homes for them, feeding them and paying for any necessary emergency health care out of our own pockets. Every animal I personally have rescued has had it shots. Our dogs have always worn collars, and we are careful to keep them in our house’s yard -- a secure fenced area -- where they are not bothersome to the park staff or public.
Among the animals that have been, and still are as of this date, a nuisance to those in the park are the collarless, tagless, free roaming dogs belonging to the Walther family. For at least two years, we (as well as park staff and visitors) have had to deal with this family’s lack of ability or desire to responsibly care for their animals.
On or about August 26 as I was preparing for bed about , I saw a small dog in our backyard and I went to investigate. She was so skittish I could not get close enough to confirm her breed, but I could tell she was female and had had at least one litter. A typical dumped dog, I thought, and went to bed.
The next morning the dog was still in our yard. So, doing what I usually do, I fed her -- I only had cat food because Harley, our dog of ten years, had passed away of old age in early August, and I had given away all our left over dog food and treats. She ate like she was starving. We began asking around if anyone had lost a small white dog and I personally asked members of the park staff who live in Foard County
After week or so, and some discussion with family members, we decided to keep her. I took her to the Quanah Vet Clinic, where Dr. Conley did not recognize her either, got her shots and had her examined to see if she was spayed or carrying pups.
On Friday, Sept. 17, at 10 in the morning, the two most obnoxious dogs belonging to the Walthers once again appeared IN MY BACKYARD WHERE THEY HAD PUSHED THROUGH THE FENCE TO GET IN. I called the park secretary to get the Walther’s phone number and then called Mrs. Walther to tell her that her dogs were in my yard, again. She acted rather nonchalantly and said they would come home eventually. I explained to her that that was a problem because my dog was in heat and I wasn’t interested in having puppies.
She finally appeared to get the dogs around and by this time her dogs were
roaming around somewhere else. Instead of coming to my door to speak to me, she helped herself to opening my backyard gate. I thought this was rather rude, but I went out to speak to her anyway and when she saw my dog (as I thought at the time) she asked me if the dog had “just shown up” a few weeks ago. I told her yes, she was a stray and we took her in and were very fond of her. She said at that point, that it was her dog, one of two dogs she lost in the same week.
I said that was too bad. She stated again that it was her dog, and I told her “not anymore,"she appeared as a stray in my backyard with no collar, no tags. And I went inside as it is not my habit to try to reason with unreasonable people.
The next day, Saturday, September 18, she rings my doorbell about Out of my front window I could see it was her and her husband and kids (I suppose) and I chose to not answer the door. The phone rang and I let the answering machine get it. It was her, and I did not pick up. Instead I let her leave her hateful message and then I called David at the office and told the staff member who answered that she was here. Staff said David was on his way to the house. Mrs. Walther then called me again on the phone and as soon as I picked up she said without even identifying herself, “Mrs. Turner you stole my dog and I am here to get her. I have no problem staying out here until you talk to me.” I told her that I have no evidence that this dog is hers and in fact, I have no reason to believe that the dog would be better off with her than here. I told her that if indeed the dog were hers and she could prove it, she could pay for the immunizations. Or she could sue me. She replied that she was “calling the cops right now.” And so at this threat, I hung up the phone. I noticed David coming home from the shop yard and that the Game Warden was pulling in the park road and turning on the shop road to the house.
I looked out my window as David was coming in the backdoor. At the same time the Game Warden was walking across my driveway to the front door. I let him in and one of the first things he does is lie by telling us that “he just happened to be passing by the park and stopped to see what was going on.” This is an outright lie because first, Thompson never comes to the house, he always has gone to the office, and second, because he clearly did not have time to receive a phone call from Walther, much less a county dispatch, before I saw he was on his way up the shop road to my house. It was also clear that this had been prearranged and that he was there at the Walthers’ beck and call because they met him when he arrived, pointing at the house and gesturing, all of which I watched from my front window. He had to have known the situation before he got there, because he did not pause long enough with the Walthers to find out before he came to my door.
This Game Warden then proceeded to tell me he can identify that the dog belongs to the Walthers and further implied that he will side with them. He further stated that the Walthers are perfectly within their rights to let their animals roam, without a collar or rabies tags, because this is rural Texas
It was clear at that point that the Walthers and their white trash behavior was about to be officially rewarded, and so I told the Game Warden to “take the fucking dog and get out of my house.” In fact, I had to tell him a couple of times. Finally I picked up the dog and tried to give her to him , but he pushed her away and that startled me, because I thought that he was getting what he wanted, and I dropped her. I picked her up again, and more forcefully shoved her into his arms, but I really could not see him because of the tears in my eyes. At this point the clumsy jerk stumbled backwards into the wall and broke my floor lamp, and then he mumbled something like “you don’t have to assault me.” I told him to take the dog and get the hell out.
He took the dog, took off her collar and tags and left them with David. He gave the dog to Mrs. Walther, and he left following the Walthers family toward their home, I assume to help celebrate their tremendous victory over over our evil deeds.
On Monday, the Walthers' two most obnoxious dogs were once again camped on my front door.
On Monday, I hear from my 15-year old son that he is accosted and harassed by a young friend of the Walthers on the bus coming home from school. This is typical of the behavior we regularly have come to expect from our “neighbors.”
Furthermore, I find out Monday that this Game Warden has threatened to file some kind of trumped-up charges against me but so far has only resorted to the cowardly tactic of initiated some kind of nonsense complaint against David. This is clearly retaliation against my husband and it should be stopped. If the Game Warden wants to press charges against me, I wholeheartedly believe he should do so. I will be absolutely thrilled to go to jail, and eventually get the chance tell the judge, and maybe CNN, my side of the story. I think maybe even Texas Monthly might be interested in how hard our parks and wildlife department law enforcement officals work to catch dangerous criminals like me.
Parks and Wildlife regularly caves in to this type of attack on its parks people disciplining its own people over the most ridiculous accusations. Eight years ago David's boss and the legal department sided with a rich white man -- Dr. Fred Koch -- who, with the complicity of the Foard County Judge and the Crowell Chamber of Commerce, tried to hijack the StarWalk, an volunteer astronomy program I developed at the park to increase visitation -and I spent more than $7000 in legal fees to protect the program and myself. Another park manager in Albany had a similar situation and was pressured to quit by the department. As I told my dear husband then - A Job with Texas Parks and Wildlife -- it 's not just a job, it's an indenture.
So there you have it. What is wrong with our country? It is full of examples of irresponsible behavior on the part of ignorant, selfish and spoiled rich people who seem to believe the rest of us are just out here to
pick up after them. And we have a law enforcement official in the pockets of these white, landowning, ignorant, selfish, and spoiled rich people and who uses the position of his office to bully the people his friends have screwed and are trying to screw as well. And of course, here we have a dysfunctional underlying community with no collective spine to stand up and say, it may be legal but it is wrong.
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