Dogs love the water and it can be difficult to find a safe place where they can swim to their heart’s content.
But what happens when the perfect dog pond happens to overlap with a popular fishing spot?
This story from Reddit tells how a dog dad used top-notch cooking skills to lure the fish—and the fishermen—away from his dog’s favorite pond.
Listen!
I have a dog and my dog likes to swim.
We have a park nearby with a dedicated area for dogs, including a pond (the dog pond) connected to other ponds by ditches, etc.
My dog is a bit of a *****, he won’t jump into the deep end, he needs a slope. There are two slopes, one on each side of the pond, the pond is about 30 metres wide.
Unfortunately for our author, he will face some competition for the top spot.
We’ve had our rare sunny days over the last few weeks, which means the people who fish, go fishing.
I’m already judging. Causing pain to animals is a weird hobby, but I don’t own the park, so there’s not much I can do.
Now there are these 3 old hands (late 60s, early 70s) who have been fishing in the dog pond for 5 years when the temperature rises above 25 °C.
I put my dog on a leash so he doesn’t disturb them, wish them a good day, walk around and let him swim on the other side.
5 years, never a problem.
But then it became a problem.
Last Monday I did exactly the same thing and one of them started shouting: “You can’t do that, we’re fishing.”
At first I ignored it, then I yelled back, and then we got into a verbal altercation where one of them threatened to hook my dog and I threatened to sink his boat (they have this really cool GPS boat).
Well, this escalated quickly, and it’s only going to get worse.
They didn’t like that and threatened physical violence, so I deescalated the situation and went on my way.
Laughed about it a few times on the way home and didn’t think it was that serious, boomer with attitude.
The next morning, both slopes at the dog pond were littered with fishing hooks. Thousands of them, both in the water and in the surrounding area.
I called the municipality and they cleaned up the same day. I explained the dispute, but there was nothing they could do.
I called the police, but if I don’t want to report the physical threats, there’s nothing they can do.
The author takes the phrase “Revenge is a dish best served cold” more literally than you think.
So I started reading up on fish species and their habits, and this guy at the store showed me.
Now I spend half an hour every night preparing the best food these fish have ever eaten. I sprout corn, soak tiger nuts in tuna extract and make caramel-vanilla flavored salmon worm balls.
The last ones are particularly difficult because the consistency has to be right and there must be no lumps. I carried out tests over several days.
So for about 10 days, I set up these feeding spots for different fish species in their favorite spots all over the park, except for the old men’s fishing spot, and hopefully keep the fish species away.
I don’t even know if it’s doing anything, and my girlfriend keeps saying, “If you spent half the time doing this doing something worthwhile, you could do something worthwhile,” but I’m thrilled with myself and will keep doing it until the temperatures drop.
I’m already thinking about next year.
Creative or crazy?
Let’s see what the Reddit commenters think about this.
Top comment: Would you like the recipe?
Another says the friend is completely wrong; the author is definitely doing something useful!
One commentator does not believe that the police could do anything given the danger posed by the scattered hooks.
This commenter agrees – let’s leave things to the authorities.
And finally, this commentator supported the fishermen until they went too far.
The old men in this story may be the ones fishing, but the author is the one who actually put his fishing rod in the catch!
If you have time, you can also get creative.
If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws free accommodation in exchange for babysitting. However, things changed when they didn’t keep their end of the bargain.
