Monday, August 11, 2008

Hurry up and... wait...

Media update: Spent a while talking to Meredith Dault at CBC Radio 1 yesterday. The story got covered today the morning local news, with a short clip of me talking about life being important to preserve – not so profound, but it’s a point, I guess.  It was on twice - but fortunately a longer version appears in print at msn.cbc.ca. I'm grateful.

Also, CTV came here today. They spent an hour at the house. I showed them everything, photos, letters, petitions, the ramp... No way to know how the story will go. I don’t know how I appear on video. It's tough; I had just answered the same questions before they set up to record. Repeating myself was not easy, it came out all different. But at least they did it, and I said whatever I said. They talked to neighbors too, to get the other side of the story; hopefully nothing too terribly bad! But I will just have to wait till 6 pm to see how it turns out.

In the meantime, Lindsay Jones, who was the first reporter to call me, published her article in the Metro News. Pretty fair and objective story. The word "attack" is a hard thing to see. I think of the way Brindi grabs a dog, then I think of other stories I've heard. 

Like the one that happened yesterday - just out of HRM. A friend of mine was walking his dog on the road. A neighbor's large German Shepherd ran off its property after them, and tried to attack his dog. My friend kicked it away, and it came at him, twice biting his hand. He kicked it again, and when it kept at it, he started thinking about using a little knife with him, and he was just about to - thinking he might have to kill the dog - when its owner turned up and hauled it away. Did he call the cops? No. Why? He said the owner had always been a good neighbor, and he didn't want him to lose his dog. He expected he'd hear from him, and figured they would settle it between themselves. 

If this happened in Halifax, I wonder if the dog would have been seized and euthanized. And I also wonder: should there be a distinction between and "attack" and an attack?