Is that a dog barking? I thought to myself as I left the coolness of the supermarket and headed back out into the August heat. I stopped, straining my ears to listen. Nothing.

I continued to my car breathing a deep sigh of relief. As I opened the door a huge wave of heat hit me in the face, I’d only been inside for 15 minutes, but in the dog days of August, 15 minutes was more than enough. Honestly, I hate going to grocery stores in the summer, 9 out of 10 times, I see or hear a dog that has been left in the car.

I put my groceries on the floor, started the car and turned to my head to the left to make sure the way was clear, and locked eyes with a sweet little pitty mix in the car next to me.  As she stuck her little nose to the cracked window to sniff the air, my heart started pounding.

Son of a bitch! With shaking hands I pulled out my cell phone and dialed my local animal control only to discover they were already closed.

I backed the car up to a spot directly behind me, and dialed the police department.

There’s a dog in a car at my grocery store, I explained to the officer that answered the phone.

Is the car running? He asked in return.

I really can’t tell, I responded.

I gave him the make, model and license plate of the car, as well as the location they could find it, and I headed to the gas pumps.

I deliberately chose a pump where I could keep an eye on the car, so I could direct the police if need be. And then I waited watching the clock.

It had been ten minutes since I’d called the police and I had no idea how long the dog had been in the car before I came out of the store.

The car in front of me moved, so I switched into drive and moved forward. In those few precious seconds it took me to move my car, the owner came out of the store, got in her car and drove away.

I filled up my car, then called the police and let them know she left. I passed the cops as I left the complex. All told it was over 20 minutes from the time I called, until the time a cop finally responded.

Ultimately, I was grateful that the temperatures were in the low 80’s as opposed to the temps we’ve been having this week.

We’ve all shared the graphs and the graphics, and still we are constantly hearing about dogs being left in hot cars.

What needs to happen for people to understand that dogs don’t belong in cars while you shop? And what will it take for the cops to take this siriusly?

I’ve given this a lot of thought lately and I am considering carrying a small, flexible dryer hose in my car, so in these situations I could pipe some of the air conditioning from my car into the other car to help cool it down.

Or maybe I can bring a bat, brick or other owner window smashing device to help free a dog from a hot car.

If I had my way, I’d make the person sit in that hot car for the same amount of time and in the same conditions they left their dogs.

Of course what I’d really like is a Dolores Umbridge pen, and I would make them write, “Dogs die in hot cars” until the message was clear.

Without that special pen though, maybe a blunter message is needed? I turned to Delilah, the dog who tells it like it is.

Do you think they’ll get the point?

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