The long arm of the law

In what may be a first in puppy raising, I found myself staring down the long arm of the law this afternoon, over a puppy that isn't even here anymore.

Gorham, Maine takes its dog licensing very seriously, people. And the cop on my doorstep was hot on the trail of the unlicensed Nettie Louise.

Fortunately it was a mixup, and I did not wind up being hauled away to the hoosegow.

The background: Dog licenses in our town expire on Dec. 31, and there is a theoretical "grace period" until Jan. 31.

Given that Nettie left for IFT on Feb. 2, I had called the town clerk in January to explain the situation and ask if I really needed to license Nettie for just a couple weeks. She had said that no, I didn't have to. (She was also awfully rude and snippy about it, and frankly, acted like I was trying to scam the town out of the money, but that's another story.)

Well, apparently, she never took me off the list for having the exemption .. and the town is now cracking down on dog license scofflaws, hence the officer's visit to my home today.

I invited the cop in, explained the GEB program and background to him, and invited him to feel free to search the house for Nettie if he liked. He wisely observed that if a Lab was in the house, he probably would have already seen or heard her.

He crossed my name off, and left, leaving me a free woman.

Just to be safe, though, I've called the Town Council chairman -- who happens to have recently retired as a vet at the practice that treated Murphy and Nettie both for free. I figure it can't hurt to make sure I really get off the list this time (and honestly, I intend to share my feelings about the clerk at this point, too!)