How much do you tip the Animal Control guy?

First off I don't want anybody to freak out - Caspian is still warm and dry and a cherished member of our family.

The reason the local Animal Control guy was called was because two large white pit bull terriers (that do NOT belong to us) were camped out in our back yard.

This is how our little drama unfolded:

6-ish in the evening: I heard a loud noise coming from near the front door (but it also sounded like it was coming from under the house), I poked my head out the door, I saw the bull terriers, I yelled "YgitoNNouttahyeea!!!" [not sure of the exact spelling] and they (apparently) ran off.

7-ish in the evening: Diana opened the back door to take Caspian for a walk and (thankfully) she saw the bull terriers before they could make an hors d'oeuvre out of Caspian. Not ever having had to call anybody for something like this before, I just called the first number that came to mind - 9 1 1 . (They very pleasantly gave me the number for the local police department)

7-ish in the evening [plus a couple minutes]: I called the Police Department and they (after making sure that everybody was safe) told me that they would call the Animal Control guy.

10 to 12 minutes later: The Animal Control guy called and told me "I'm involved in a case right now. I'll be there in 20 - 30 minutes." This seemed believable - we live in a small town.

Just shy of 2 hours after my first call to 9 1 1 : The Animal Control guy (i think he said his name was "Steve") showed up. I told everybody to get in their rooms and I brought Steve through the house. It just seemed "poor form" to ask Steve to go around the shed and potentially get maimed but a wild bull terrier. (They had growled at me earlier.)

I told Steve "One of 'em is sitting next to my shed but there was two of them earlier." As soon as Steve stepped out the back door (I was holding Caspian) he said "The other one is under the step - I can feel her moving the steps."

So just as I'm thinking "Wow, those dogs looked solid to me - i was right!" and "Man alive I'm glad a professional is taking care of this instead of me" Steve hollers "um...I'm going to need your help on this."



oh.



Crud.



Long story short (too late, right?) Steve tells me what he needs and, after I retrieved the other pole from his truck, he took the (larger) male dog to the truck and I followed with the female. I can now check Leading an animal on the end of a dog-catcher's pole off of my list of "Stuff to do before I die". (Just kidding - I had never imagined that this kind of "opportunity" would arise. It's not the sort of thing that I would go looking for.)

After we got both dogs into cages in the truck, Steve told me that he was "pretty sure" that the terriers lived at a house down the street.

Steve and I shook hands and parted ways and only after he had driven away and I was in the house did it occur to me "Was I supposed to tip the Animal Control guy??".