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Independence, MO —
A trip to get gas is cut short Wednesday afternoon as Tracy Davenport pulls alongside Truman Road in Independence.
“I gotta try to catch this dog,” says Davenport of a sheltie headed straight toward oncoming traffic along the busy thoroughfare, not far from the Noland Road intersection.
“C’mon girl, come here,” Davenport says, hopping out of her Independence Health Department Animal Control truck.
The smiling dog, with a rabies tag clearly visible from its collar, turns momentarily toward Davenport and then runs south on North Wilson Avenue into a residential area.
Davenport gets back into her truck – or, as she calls it, “my office” – and follows.
“Never know when you’re going to see a dog on the loose,” says Davenport, who had just returned from her lunch break.
She watches the dog go into a fenced-in backyard of an empty house and she closes both gates. After several minutes, she is able to safely secure the dog and place it in her truck, before proceeding with business as usual.
It’s likely Davenport saved the dog’s life, or at the very least, saved it from being struck by a vehicle.
The situation is pretty typical in Davenport’s daily work, she says.
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Working with animals wasn’t in the cards for Davenport growing up in Kansas City.
She wanted to own her own greenhouses. She earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and geography at Northwest Missouri State University.
For a while, she worked for the U.S. Post Office in Kansas City and later took a part-time job in mosquito control with the Independence Health Department. Davenport says she enjoyed the mosquito control gig because of her entomology courses in college.
Then, a position became available in Animal Control. Davenport says she knew little about the job, but she applied.
Thursday marked her seventh anniversary with Animal Control. Last December, she received the city’s Employee of the Month honor.
“I didn’t think it would be this,” Davenport says, laughing, of her job that is so much more than just picking up animals, “but I stuck around. I thought it was going to be easy, but it ain’t easy at first.”
When she first started, Davenport had never even owned an animal, but now she has Birdie, a golden retriever; Peewee the poodle; and a cat she simply calls “Cat.”
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The sheltie, actually a boy, is 3-year-old Marshall. He was wearing a 2011 rabies tag, and Davenport called the dog’s veterinarian to get Marshall’s and his owner’s information. She scanned him to see if he had a microchip, which he didn’t.
A trip to get gas is cut short Wednesday afternoon as Tracy Davenport pulls alongside Truman Road in Independence.
“I gotta try to catch this dog,” says Davenport of a sheltie headed straight toward oncoming traffic along the busy thoroughfare, not far from the Noland Road intersection.
“C’mon girl, come here,” Davenport says, hopping out of her Independence Health Department Animal Control truck.
The smiling dog, with a rabies tag clearly visible from its collar, turns momentarily toward Davenport and then runs south on North Wilson Avenue into a residential area.
Davenport gets back into her truck – or, as she calls it, “my office” – and follows.
“Never know when you’re going to see a dog on the loose,” says Davenport, who had just returned from her lunch break.
She watches the dog go into a fenced-in backyard of an empty house and she closes both gates. After several minutes, she is able to safely secure the dog and place it in her truck, before proceeding with business as usual.
It’s likely Davenport saved the dog’s life, or at the very least, saved it from being struck by a vehicle.
The situation is pretty typical in Davenport’s daily work, she says.
–––
Working with animals wasn’t in the cards for Davenport growing up in Kansas City.
She wanted to own her own greenhouses. She earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and geography at Northwest Missouri State University.
For a while, she worked for the U.S. Post Office in Kansas City and later took a part-time job in mosquito control with the Independence Health Department. Davenport says she enjoyed the mosquito control gig because of her entomology courses in college.
Then, a position became available in Animal Control. Davenport says she knew little about the job, but she applied.
Thursday marked her seventh anniversary with Animal Control. Last December, she received the city’s Employee of the Month honor.
“I didn’t think it would be this,” Davenport says, laughing, of her job that is so much more than just picking up animals, “but I stuck around. I thought it was going to be easy, but it ain’t easy at first.”
When she first started, Davenport had never even owned an animal, but now she has Birdie, a golden retriever; Peewee the poodle; and a cat she simply calls “Cat.”
–––
The sheltie, actually a boy, is 3-year-old Marshall. He was wearing a 2011 rabies tag, and Davenport called the dog’s veterinarian to get Marshall’s and his owner’s information. She scanned him to see if he had a microchip, which he didn’t.
The fines for an unrestrained dog in Independence range between $50 and $500, plus any additional court costs. In her truck, Davenport enters the case information in a laptop containing real-time data. She knocks at the owner’s last known address, and when there is no reply, Davenport leaves a door hanger with information.
“I like returning the animals back to the owners,” Davenport says. “I like helping to save animals. Out here, you can meet different people. I mean, there’s good people and there’s bad people, but the bad people, they challenge you. They make you stronger.”
As for dangerous calls, Davenport says she’s been pretty lucky in her seven years as an Animal Control officer.
But one man’s facial expressions Wednesday afternoon showed that, sometimes, the humans may pose just as much threat to Davenport as the animals.
The man saw Davenport pull up and he went in and out of his house. She was responding to a report that dogs living at the residence were being mistreated.
Sometimes, Davenport says, the complaint reports have nothing to do with the animals – it’s just two neighbors not getting along well, and a dog is stuck in the middle.
The man tells Davenport that he won’t let her see the dogs. Unless a dog is bleeding, Davenport says, it’s hard to prove if it is being mistreated. Computer records indicate Animal Control was called to the residence once in 2010 and that the dogs are behind on their rabies vaccinations.
The man’s demeanor softens a bit over the course of 10 minutes, and he tells Davenport that he’ll take the dogs for their shots first thing Thursday morning. She says she’ll be back to follow up.
“I try to be nice,” Davenport says. “If you’re nice, they’re nice to you, a majority of the time. I don’t try to play Super Animal Control Officer.”
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When Davenport received the Employee of the Month honor, she told the City Council she wanted to change people’s perception of Animal Control. At age 35, she is a self-proclaimed “baby face,” her hair tied back loosely with a white scrunchie, her petite frame dressed in a uniform of a pale blue work shirt, dark cargo pants and black boots.
“People see us, and they – especially the kids – think, ‘Are you going to put down a dog? You have any dead animals?’” Davenport says. “We’re here to save animals. We’re not here to put down animals.”
Or, people will see Davenport’s truck and immediately think they’re doing something wrong. “Half the time,” she says, “I’m just parked on the side of the road, doing paperwork. I’m not even looking for a dog.”
Overall public education, Davenport says, is one of the biggest challenges in her job.
“You know, I think some people just get a dog when they’re smiling and they’re cute, and then all of a sudden when it gets bigger, they have to take it to the vet,” she says. “Some people don’t understand that there’s more to it than just getting a dog, getting it water and feeding it.”
Davenport’s compassion for both animals and people makes her good at her job, says Jennifer Polston, Independence Animal Services supervisor. For the past two years, Davenport has organized Animal Services’ annual Community Animal Fair, in addition to personally bringing hundreds of backpacks and school supplies to distribute to families who cannot afford to buy those necessities for their children.
Davenport also has collected doghouse donations for pet owners who are unable to buy the houses for their dogs.
“She absolutely goes above and beyond to make our community a better place for both animals and people,” Polston says.
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She’s basically abandoned the greenhouse dream, adding, “This takes a lot out of you.” Davenport normally works an eight-hour shift. Any area in Independence is fair game, and Davenport has occasionally responded to calls in Sugar Creek and Buckner. The Animal Control officers take turns each week being on-call at night.
Still, Davenport says she’s happy her work isn’t a typical desk job, that’s she out in the field doing something new each day.
“Some people don’t like different. I like different. I like the changes,” Davenport says. “It can be stressful because people want you to do certain things I can’t do – I can’t just pull a dog out of somebody’s backyard. I have to go through my steps.”
By 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Davenport is back at the Animal Shelter for a bit. Marshall needs several vaccinations and a microchip. Davenport also will take his picture.
“He’s a good-looking dog,” Davenport says. “I hope the owner comes down – these days, it’s so hard to tell.”
