Why do I feel vaguely guilty about having called the police to have them check on the dogs that belong to the next-door neighbors of the group home I worked at the last couple of days? On Sunday, my coworker pointed out to me that it looked like no humans were home since she came in on Saturday morning. The dogs are in a small dog run with a ply-wood dog house and a blanket. So I took a pitcher of water over to pour in their water dish - what was in there at the time was frozen. There was no food in their food dishes. The dogs were barking and growling - usually they are friendly and mellow. After giving them the water, I took some leftover chicken that was in the fridge (it was a couple days older than we are supposed to keep/feed to the people who live there, but it had not gone bad). I didn't think too much about them during the day today, but when leaving work tonight, I realized that there were still no signs of humans, and that it was bloody cold out.
I got home, told Daniel, checked WeatherBug for the temperature (10˚F) - and Daniel recommended calling the police. I did, they had an officer check on the dogs - he let me know there is now dog food in their dishes, and he deems the dog house sufficient shelter, but he will pass the report on to animal control in the morning.