Rat Poison

I just learned my neighbor’s dog died of rat poison.

Everyone in our neighborhood knows "Sophie" and her elderly owner. They are frequent walkers in the area. We often saw the pair early in the morning, late in the evening, and many other times in between. For me, it’s always a pleasure to see a well-behaved dog on public streets. "Sophie" was so well trained that she never had to be leashed. She looked very much like any other good dog when walking next to her master on the street. But she became extremely protective of her owner if someone she did not know came close to him. She did annoy a few neighbors because sometimes she barked a lot. Quite often we could hear her loud and forceful barks a block away.

But I do not know if she was relegating her guard duties to a new kid on the block. We did not hear "Sophie" barking much after "Harley", a Chow, moved into the house near hers a couple of years ago.

"Sophie" died just days before her 10th birthday about a month ago. Her owner thought she caught a dead rat in the back yard.

Composting bins in the back yard attract rats. To get rid of the rats, many of us resort to deadly poisons that kill rats but also pets and even kids. While composting is good for the environment, putting rat poisons around composting bins is not. - Ayee