I once was an Animal Control Officer (ACO) for the City of Dallas (TX). Without bragging too much on myself, I was a pretty good Animal Control Officer during my earlier days. Well, I thought I was a good ACO until I had a service call of a stray dog that was chasing residents in the neighborhood. I finally located the stray male dog in the neighborhood and attempted to catch it. Each time I chase and attempt to catch that stray dog, it was eventually able to escape through an opening underneath one of the nearby houses in that neighborhood. This stray dog was really getting on my damn nerve cause I was unable to catch it. Even when I finally caught that stray dog with one of our regular dog nets (it was actually a large aluminum pole fish catching net), the stray dog still managed to overpower the aluminum net and escape from my clutches once again. Dang stray dog!!! One day, I was able to come up with a concept to improve our ordinary fishing nets to catch and hold our stray dogs. One of my supervisor gave me a budget to work with. And, I was able to draw a new animal catching net. The catch pole was made from aircraft steel in order to be strong and light weight enough for even a female ACO to also handle. The loop that hold the fish net was made from rebard iron to not break while an animal is attempting to escape from the net. And, I made the net that it could be easily assembled and disassembled while transporting it on an animal control vehicle. I was able to create something that was never made before by our animal control shelters. My invention would eventually become known as the "Super Net". And, the Super Net became one of most effective tools during our dog catching calls.
The day finally came for me to attempt to catch that damn stray dog that kept alluding me. I even had a game plan with another CO to catch that stray dog. During the chase, everything worked out as planned when the stray dog attempt to escape underneath the same house it normally hides underneath. the officer was able to simply throw the Super Net over the dog before it got underneath the house. I could not believe we finally caught that damn stray dog with one of my inventions!!! I spoke too soon, though. That stray dog was not going to be caught without a fight. The dog, in desperation, launched out at me as I attempted to put a dog pole around its head with my hand. At the same time, the dog was able to bite through that fish net and escape from my clutches once again. The stray dog bit the hell out of my hand to the point it was almost feeling numb. That was the last time I ever saw that uncatchable stray dog. I learned a valuable lesson while dealing with that damn stray dog: "Nothing is ever a sure thing, especially when you don't take the unknowns into factor." I did not factor that the regular fish net would hold that crazy *ss stray dog. And, I underestimated what that dog would do once caught. But, at least I scared that stray dog out of that neighborhood, which stopped the stray dog calls on that street.
I eventually transferred to a new job withing the City of Dallas. And, the Super Nets (if not maintained by another ACO) probably became an animal catching tool of the past. I still think about that damn uncatchable stray dog from time to time (like yesterday) and wondered whatever became of it. I hoped it lived a good life. But, during my ACO days, I wanted to catch that dog soooo bad for biting me. Oh well, you catch them all I guess...
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