You know what's wrong here? No body has been sworn to tell the truth. One can't perjure oneself if he hasn't taken an oath.
We went to court Tuesday morning. We agreed on a settlement that goes something like this: Shamika Shirley agrees to let both dogs, Tracker, the brown and white spotted pit and the little white puppy pit, to be picked up by the animal shelter. The shelter would then offer the dogs (at the regular fee) to be adopted out by the people who are currently taking care of them as long as they have a suitable environment. Simple.
This should have been a painless solution since the first thing Shamika Shirley's attorney said to the judge was that these dogs belong to neither Nicholas Kennedy nor Shamika Shirley. So, Shirley was to give the addresses where the dogs could be found. It was hard to hear everything said and I didn't hear this part but apparently Shirley was less than forthcoming with the 411. L, our animal shelter representative, informed the judge that she already knew where Tracker was. He's on Harrison Street irritating the crap out of the SE neighborhood. Finally an address was given for somewhere over by the fairgrounds for the white pup.
The judge was careful to state that this deal was not sealed until the animals could be taken into custody. If they couldn't be obtained then he would see us all back in court next Tuesday. L seemed certain that there would be no problem picking up the dogs.
Not so. T and I spent a couple of hours after court shopping and had hardly returned home when trouble began. It went something like this though the details aren't really clear to me. In trying to take Tracker from the Harrison St. address, L had a run in with Nick (who is one scary and violent SOB). He says that the dog on Harrison St. is not the same dog they have an order to pick up. Bullshit. Actually, I don't think that was L's reply but I know she was thinking it. L called me asking for the best pics I have of the dog. She had to prove to Shirley and Kennedy's attorney that this was the dog. Of course it was. The animal has several very distinguished makings and there was no question.
So, back on Harrison St., this is the dog they have a court order to collect. now there's a problem with the resident, Chris. Chris who two weeks ago when the animal shelter confronted him about the dog getting loose and terrorizing the neighborhood said, It's not my dog. I'm just keeping it for my cousin." The cousin turned out to be none other than Nicholas Kennedy. A nice break for this case. Nicholas Kennedy avers strongly and repeatedly and up in the animal control officers faces, "It's not my dog!" one minute and "You can't take my dogs!" the next.
Ok, let's go over this. It's not Nick's dog. It's not Shamika's dog. It's not Chris' dog. What's the problem then? The problem is now, Chris, who lives at the same address as Tracker but is not the property owner, (no, he's a freeloader just like his cousin, living off his girlfriend) now claims Tracker is his dog. SAY WHAT? And the property owner wont let them take the dog. And that's another thing, Chris says Nick is his cousin. An animal control officer told me that Chris was Shamika's brother. This would make Shamika Shirley shacking up with and having kids with her cousin? I don't even want to go there.
New plan. The animal shelter draws up a new proposal to settle that says that the current property owner can keep the dog up until the dog leaves the property then it becomes the City of Decatur's property. BUT. . .
Now I don't understand this and I may have it wrong but my friend called this morning and said that the magistrate made a little clerical error. The case at hand was not listed as a vicious animal case, it was more a case against Shamika Shirley. This means that Trackers new owners could keep him no strings attached and Tracker doesn't get labeled a potentially vicious animal. The difference is, I think, that had this been a vicious animal case, the dog, no matter who claims him (or not), would have been picked up on the court order. Big slip up. Back to square one.
Oh yeah, one last admission from Nick, "Bamboo isn't dead but you'll never find him."
No shit.
It sure is much brighter than that "otter tail" brown I had in here. The carpet looks dirtier and I had to lower the wattage of the bulbs in the lamps.
