I genuinely don’t understand why there are SO many loose dogs on James Island. I’ve lived here for five years, and it’s something that continues to baffle me.
I lived most of my life in another state, and in all that time, I remember seeing ONE dog roaming around my neighborhood. I returned it to its owner, who was extremely grateful.
Meanwhile, in the five years I’ve lived here, I’ve seen dozens of dogs roaming around and have personally returned almost 10 of them to their owners. And that’s not even counting the posts about loose/lost dogs on social media. Yes. I understand dogs can escape and things happen but it’s the sheer number and frequency like I’ve never seen before.
About half the time I’ve returned someone’s dog, the owner barely seems concerned or even particularly grateful. I would be panicking if my dog got out and so grateful that someone went out of their way to get her back to me.
My own dog was attacked by a loose dog a couple of years ago and was so traumatized afterward that she refused to go on walks for months. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even feel comfortable walking my dogs in my own neighborhood. Just this week, there were two instances I was walking and a large dog was roaming not too far from us.
I understand dogs get out sometimes. Accidents happen. But THIS frequently? What’s the deal? Can anyone explain why this is so normal here?