Watch Tip for week of Aug. 15

Watch closely if you come upon shelter, a kennel or dog house or lean-to, that is in ramshackle condition. Seek them out in areas hit by foreclosures and in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Are food and water bowls turned over or filled with filth? Do the feces contain rocks or dirt? Is the dog sad and reclusive? You must take immediate action or the dog could die.

Dedicated to two dead dogs abandoned in St. Paul MN, names unknown

They were found curled together in death, their bodies dusty and dry, in a ramshackle doghouse attached to an empty home. In one article, authorities speculated that dark one had died earlier than the light one, because the dark body was more decomposed. So the light-colored dog laid with his head nestled against the dark belly of his dead friend, waiting silently for his release. It takes a long time to starve.

Neighbors hadn’t seen either dog for months, it was reported. The two starving, dispirited dogs must have crept around the junk-filled kennel only when they felt safe, possibly after dark. One neighbor wrote a comment: “I live nearby & walk my dog past this house regularly… I do remember seeing a puppy at this house when I got my dog. Then as it got bigger it was relegated to the kennel in the back. I don’t think I ever saw the older dog.”

Readers, these following links no longer work. If anyone knows of other news coverage to link to, please send a comment. Thank you.

Read more about the case here.

Read comments from Twin Cities readers here.

If you come across a decrepit shelter for animals, you must make a special effort to discover if living animals are kept inside. If the shelter looks abandoned, do not assume that. Make a noise. Call out. Bang on a wall. The animals may just be too sick or too starved to move about or make noise unless startled in some way. In the case above, if neighbors had suspected out that living dogs were still inside the kennel, those poor dogs would be alive today. But no one knew. The dogs never interacted with the world outside their little kennel.

Please light a candle for the silent light-colored dog and his dark friend and send a prayer that all hidden neglected starving animals are found.