I've not written about this before, but here is a situation I found myself in about a year ago.
One of my dogs had a broken tooth that was preventing him from wanting to do the bite work for schutzhund.
This is very bad, because he must do the bite work before he can go on to compete in the conformance (show) ring.
My dogs compete in SV (German) shows rather than AKC. They are MUCH more demanding, and schutzhund training and titling is required for the dogs to compete for the top spots in our sport. Currently, my dog Lex, the dog in question, is third in the U.S.
Schutzhund is comprised of three disciplines: tracking, obedience, and protection. It is very similar to police dog training. Our dogs are well rounded, personal protection dogs after their training is complete, that are fine pet dogs and good citizens with strangers and other animals. But, they are also capable defenders when asked to do so.
As I said, Lex had a broken tooth that made him not want to engage in bite work training. He was already highly titled, but would not perform at trials. Something had to be done.
We learned of a doggie dentist with good references down in Lenexa Kansas. My wife made an appointment for me to take Lex in at 3:00 in the afternoon. I was good with that, because it's almost a 4 hour drive from our house.
When I got to the appointment, all they did was look at the dog and explain what the options were. I was
so pissed at my wife! We already knew the options, I was there to have the tooth
fixed. But, my wife had made an appointment for a
consultation! The people that could fox the tooth had already gone home for the day. I would need to come back tomorrow, they could get me in about 8:00 A.M.
So, I call my wife and tell her to find us a motel room. I have no clothes, medicine, dog food or bowls, dog crate, even a toothbrush. But I wasn't going to drive another 8 hours and spend the gas money just to come back the next morning. The cost was about a wash. I bought a small bag of dog food, a couple of "shareware" containers for dog food and water, and settled in for the night.
Our appointment was at 8:00 the next morning. I set the alarm for 6, so I could get the dog out to do his business early enough that I could hit the free breakfast buffet and still make our appointment time. I decided to take the dog out the side door, rather than the close route through the lobby, to be considerate to early breakfast folks that might not appreciate an 85 pound German Shepherd strutting through their breakfast area.
As we reentered the motel, all of a sudden, a woman began screaming, as though she was being murdered.
HELP!!! HELP!!! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!! GET OFF ME!!! I DON'T KNOW YOU!!! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!!!
There were two other men in the hallway walking towards the lobby and the buffet. We all heard it.
One of the men said, "Well! Sounds like someone is having a bad morning!". Both kept walking towards the lobby.
Briefly, I considered doing the same thing. Not my business. Not my fight. Those thought were almost immediately replaced by "What if this were my wife, or my daughter." I knew I couldn't walk away.
The motel was shaped like an L and three stories high. We were about halfway down the long leg by the middle exit door and stairwell. The screaming was coming from upstairs. Lex and I charged up to the second floor. By now, the screaming had stopped, and I looked all up and down the halls, but there was nothing to be seen. Then, the screaming began again. Naturally, it was up on the third floor! So we ran up the stairwell and rounded the corner.
There, about 30 feet away, was a naked woman on the floor against the wall with a large man holding her down and trying to cover her mouth. His back was to us, and he didn't know we were there. I pushed back my
coat to expose my Walther PPQ in it's retention holster, and yelled "WHAT THE F IS GOING ON!!!!"
The guy turned around, surprised, and looked at us. Big cammo clad dude, gun on hip, BIG German Shepherd on a leash standing VERY alert, with a no nonsense demeanor. Not growling or anything. He didn't need to.
I said, "LET HER GO! Get OFF that woman! He stood up, dragging the woman up with him. He said, "This is not what you think! She's taken an overdose of bad drugs! She's just tripping out! She knows me! We've been dating for two years!" Meanwhile he tells the woman, "Ashley! Shut up! You need to cover up!"
Of course, I have NO IDEA what the real story is. Is this a pimp/whore, a whore/john, a domestic dispute, a bad drug deal gone wrong, or what. Only that this woman is still screaming that she doesn't know this guy.
I take enough time to look at them both. He seems sober, and strangely normal. She doesn't. And by now, he has let her go and is standing a few feet away, but strangely she has not run away but is still standing about 10 feet away screaming at him to get the F away from her. She is @ 32-35, blonde, shaved, tattooed and pierced. Has the body of a stripper, and the mouth to match. She looks like trouble.
By this time, there are about five or six doors further up the hallway that had opened with people peeking out.
I point to two, and say "Call 911! NOW!" I see several people moving to do so. But my main attention is on the guy. He says "There's no need for the cops! She's just trippin'! She'll be Ok!"
I My response is, "That's fine. The cops are on the way. They will make sure she gets the help she needs." All the while, the woman is standing in the hall screaming at the guy, making no effort to get away or even cover herself.
I tell the guy, "I think you should leave". He looks at me and says "You think I should leave?!!?"
I say "Yeah, I don't think she's going to stop screaming until you do. Besides, the cops are coming. I'm doing
you a favor. Just walk away!" He looks at me, looks at her, and says "FINE!!! F YOU ASHLEY!!!!" Then he looks at me and points his finger and says "AND F YOU TOO!!!", at which point Lex tensed and gave the most menacing growl I have ever heard ANY of my dogs make! (If I had let him go and said the word, Lex would have messed him up.) Dude intelligently decides to walk past us on the far side of the hall, and as he does so the woman yells at him "YEAH JEREMY! GET THE F OUT OF HERE!!!" and proceeds to follow him attempting to strike him! I say "Oh, so you DO know him!!!"
I look at the guy, and say "Look, I'm sorry if I misjudged the situation, but please realize I'm only trying to do the right thing. But I still think you should go. She's not going to stop until you do." So he goes down the side stairs, and after a minute I follow. I want no part of the crazy druggy chick.
The guy was at the bottom of the stairs when we got to the main floor, and I again said I was sorry. I even gave him one of my business cards and told him I didn't know what story Ashley might be telling the cops, but I would testify to what I had seen. Then we proceeded to walk towards our room down by the lobby. By the time we rounded the corner towards the lobby we could see several people standing up in the breakfast area looking at some disturbance in the lobby. Apparently the druggie chick had run out the side door, around the outside and into the lobby, still buck nekkid. Screaming how she needed water NOW!!!
I just walked past the breakfast folks, told the counter help the police had been called, and walked outside to wait for them to arrive, which they did about 45 seconds later. I told them "She's in the lobby. You can't miss her."
