What follows is a summary of calls to the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section.
Playing possum
At 1:21 p.m. on Tuesday, a Charter Oak Drive woman phoned police to report that her two dogs—one-year-old brother ‘Mast-Weilers’ (a combination of Mastiff and Rottweiler)—had cornered some animal that now was not moving. The resident identified the non-responsive animal as a possum. According to a police report, Animal Control responded that possums often play dead for up to one hour if they’re threatened. Officer Allyson Halm instructed the woman to get the designer dogs away and keep them quiet for a period of time. Forty-five minutes later, the woman reported that the possum was still there, though by the time Halm arrived some minutes later, the wily marsupial had moved on.
Chasing joggers
A 3-year-old fixed male Labrador retriever was reported at 10:05 a.m. on May 27 to be menacing joggers on Briscoe Road, according to a police report. A complainant reported a “vicious” and “aggressive” yellow Lab in the roadway. A neighbor soon secured the dog, which then was impounded by Animal Control in the agency’s shelter at the Transfer Station. The animal appeared happy and rambunctious to the officer, the report said. It isn’t clear how he got out. The animal’s owner was fined $167 total, for one count of allowing a dog to roam, and one count of nuisance dog, both infraction offenses.
Brake for wildlife
A White Oak Shade woman was on the phone with Animal Control at about 10:24 a.m. on May 19 to report a raccoon that had climbed into a tree when the animal apparently made for the roadway and was killed by a passing car, according to a police report. A baby raccoon with the animal, apparently its mom, was crying nearby and did not want to leave her body, Halm said. Police tried to administer to the mom but she died, and the wailing baby was taken to Weston-based Wildlife In Crisis, a donor-supported nonprofit organization.
Repeat offenders
A Hawks Hill Road resident was fined $184 after two golden retrievers he or she owned were found roaming on Hawks Hill Road around 3:35 p.m. on May 24, according to a police report. They had breached an invisible fence at home and were impounded, the report said. The same dogs were reported to be loose again in the neighborhood—which backs up to the Merritt Parkway, a spot where the pair had been found roaming in the past—on May 27 and 31, police said.
Separately, a pair of 11-year-old Deep Valley Road dogs—a border collie and Australian shepherd—were seen running in the woods by an Animal Control officer who had been responding to a different call. Known already to Animal Control, one of the dogs came running to the van straightaway on being called by name, according to a police report. The same dogs have roamed off-property before, police said, apparently getting past an invisible fence somehow. In this case, the owners of the dogs were fined $184 as a result of two counts of allowing a dog to roam.
Wildlife in Crisis is fantastic. Several years ago, we brought them three baby raccoons whose mother had disappeared, probably killed by a coyote. They had been living inside a tree in the back yard.
WIC asks a price for animals brought in, which of course is as it should be, since it costs money to care for these creatures. Besides that, it is a worthy cause. In the past, we also have brought them a baby squirrel, fallen from its nest, and a Baltimore Oriole which had flown into a glass door. (The door has been replaced with one with panes.) All animals ultimately thrived and were released into the wild.