Is there Life after Animal Control?

So it has been a little over seven years since I last wore my badge and uniform and ventured out on a call.

Do I miss it?

You can see so many TV shows, usually about police officers but I expect it would also apply to other careers, like animal control, that portray the retired officer as very often an alcoholic or almost so, person, that could never quite adapt to life without the excitement of the daily routine and the comradery of law enforcement life.

Well, I have actually met people like that, back in my animal control days, and even where I live now, where the old ACO or officer still stops by to visit at the old station every week. Just to 'check in' and tell old stories of old glories and barrage any new hire that maybe hadn't heard them before.
I have told a few tales of tails but they've mostly been in these posts, so I guess my desire to type all this, was it was part memories and part therapy?

I have told a few stories to local law enforcement that for a while were considering starting up an area animal control response and liked the fact that both Stacy and I had so much experience.

But no, maybe I've been lucky in that regard by moving not only out of the area that we worked, but totally out of the state and far away from that state to boot.

But,........... do I miss it? Well,.......... in a way yes,....... but mainly no, I don't miss the job enough to be doing anymore, at this time in my life.

And actually, there is a person I know, we became Facebook friends and kind of reconnected a bit, (but to me the only reason to use Facebook is finding and then keeping tabs on old friends you want to and family), that had been an ACO for several years then his life went in a totally different tangent after he was injured on the job, to only be back to 'chasing dogs' in his mid fifties.
No, not for me!
Even if they had started a local animal control it would have advisory and part time tops!

But when I left the job in 2006 I was really disillusioned and burned out from the almost 25 years I'd already been there. I was so sick and tired of the inequity of the department, some people could do no right and several that didn't deserve it were the ones that could do no wrong, no matter how bad, including one that had medical issues that contributed to his having several vehicle accidents and losing his ability to drive yet was allowed to stay on as a "field" supervisor! Yet most of the people I'd known over the years that lost their ability to drive were immediately terminated since the job was driving and you couldn't drive you couldn't work.

No, just stupid stuff like that, bullying supervisors that would never have any repercussions for the bad behavior they did, and not one of those "powers that be" would even listen! It just kept getting worse and as always more calls, more work with less people and concern over quantity of calls versus the quality of those calls handled. I got soooo sick of those "do as I say not as I do" attitudes of those 4 people in the power positions.

No I really don't miss that part. I wouldn't want to do the job now with so many hyper critical 'citizens' that I expect now a days quickly and easily record perceived injustices on their smartphone to post on YouTube. Back then people griped, a few would haul out a camcorder, but most seemed to understand what the job was and what the job entailed. But with 'modern' morays as they are and most too quick to judge without knowledge,....... no, not for me.

What I would do though if it was possible would be just to try and make a better memory out of all of it. Those same smartphones that are the bane of so many departments would also be so great for grabbing better bits for memories sake.
Not much was truly portable and small back in those analog days. And if it was it cost way more than most people, like me, could afford.

The video I had taken and all the photos I've got, all required a thought out measured action due to the size of the gadgets needed to do those things. Now with my own Galaxy Note II, I grab it out of my shirt pocket and take a photo or video right then in a matter of seconds.
No getting it out of a case putting the battery in turn it on put the tape in and let it start up then get ready to even take the video or not too much differently to just take a photo. But I wish I had taken so much more now!

But with this digital, Internet, world, I can still relive some of it.
Such as I have a couple of 'Police Scanner' applications on both my iDevices and my Android phone that I have listened to the frequencies of my old area, just as I used to when I lived in that area with my own scanner radios.
Only thing I could do living there is my scanner would follow along with the rapid tower changes of the radio traffic as it went from tower to tower, those 800 Mz radios were after all the same as cell service back then, and with a special scanner you could stick with pretty much one channel and get the entire transmission.
No, listening on line you get just someone's scanner and sift through the calls. But the area channel splits and call signs haven't changed, so I am familiar with most of them, I recognize calls and areas and 1300 miles away I can still hear on occasion my old dispatch calls, ACO numbers owned by new people I don't know but with them getting the same kinds of call I had gotten those years ago and for all those years!

Like the other day, it seemed like most of the field people were scrambling to get their afternoon "10-48" (break) just like they did when I worked there. I found it very funny in that part of an
ACO's day seemingly hadn't changed at all, years later it seemed like they still take a break on the way to the shelter so they can't get any late calls. Just like back in those olden days when Bob, or Henry, or Ray, Maurice, they'd often try to bend the system as much as they could.
And with all those photos I can look at them and recall where it was and what I was doing in them. I can't recall the day of the week or the dates though, except for a few of them. Standout days and dates.

But back to topic, is there life afterword?

Of course there is! Life goes on after all, but what kind of life is there?

I know of many, that while I was there those 24+ years, would quit and then a few years later try to get back on. Most didn't, often because of their own behavior when they worked there before.
The ones that did, and I think of only 2 that ever did, were not there very long in their 'second life' and left again.

For myself and Stacy, we lucked out again in our new lives so I can't complain and throughly enjoy the truly slower pace and less crowds of our current home. I've told many people that where we live now is very similar to the San Bernardino mountains of about 40 years ago. Not crowded, actually green and even snows in the winter. Both the green and snow I read don't happen much there any more.

So I sometimes chase the memories, I'll watch the videos I posted on YouTube, reread my posts here, look at and remember the photos I took then, I'll listen on a scanner app to the Sheriff, emergency and Animal Control calls and remember when I was the one getting many of them or going out with a Sheriff Officer to a call, and I'll try to remember every detail of the life back then, the people involved and be glad I'm still here and able to do this.