I think my grandfather-in-law tried to poison my dog. What do I do?

raymond10782

New member
A little background: My fiance and I are currently living with her parents. My fiance's 90-year-old grandfather also lives in this house. There are a total of three dogs in this house. Our dog, a Boston/Pug mix, is the youngest of the group. The other dogs are a Chihuahua and an English Bulldog, which is the only male.

Our dog does not bark at people in the house, or hardly anyone for that matter. When people come and go out of their bedrooms, she doesn't make a peep...unless it's grandpa. As soon as she hears the doorknob turn on his bedroom door, she instantly goes into high alert and starts barking as loud as she can. It's not a playful bark. It's definitely more of a defensive, alarming bark. This is the only person she reacts this way towards. It should also be noted that the other dogs in the house, although not as actively upset by him, do not like him either.

My fiance and I had the feeling that the dogs must know something we didn't. Maybe grandpa has done something to one of them to get them to act this way. Up until now, this has just been pure speculation.

Fast forward to last night. My fiance and I went out to dinner. Before we left, we put our dog in her kennel and put her out on the back patio. I refilled her water and gave her a little food to have while we were gone. We have a small TV out there, so we turned it on so she'd have some background noise. It was a cooler night, and she was in the shade, and most of all, she was out of the way of everyone, and even if grandpa came out to the kitchen or anything, she wouldn't be around to bother him.

When we arrived home, we were shocked to see grandpa sitting out on the patio right beside her cage. My fiance's uncle and his girlfriend had stopped over and all three of them were out on the patio having drinks and watching TV. I can't explain how upset and concerned I was seeing grandpa so close to our dog's cage. She wasn't barking and they said she was being good, so everything seemed okay. Our uncle is a good guy, and she acts find when he's around, so we figured they were being nice to her. But when we got ready for bed later, my fiance went to get her kennel, but first had to take her bowls out. She came back to the bedroom with the dog bowls and asked me "What is this? Is this chocolate?"

It was absolutely chocolate. It was a piece of a small chocolate bar, which you could also see a part of an "H" on. It's one of the tiny, little Hershey bars. It was in her dog bowl. Like I mentioned earlier, right before I left, I put food in her bowls so it was absolutely not in there when we left. I don't have any chocolate in the house. My fiance doesn't eat, or even like, chocolate. Grandpa always has sweets in his room. Grandpa must have given the chocolate to her and put it directly in her bowl.

I am livid. I am not a violent or angry person, but I can almost see myself punching a 90-year-old asshole in the face for trying to kill my dog. We have not confronted him about this yet, and I have no idea how it will go. Where should we go from here?

TL;DR - Grandpa put a big piece of chocolate in my dog's bowl while we were away. 99% sure he had malicious intent.
 
@joel05 Yes! This is exactly along the lines of what we were thinking. We spoke to my fiance's mom, who is a big animal lover, about the situation. If what we suspect is true, and grandpa did something horrible to one of the dogs, he will no longer be welcome in the house. It's definitely not something we hoped to have to do, but the dogs are family too, and they shouldn't have to live with a monster in the house.

My fiance and I are going to run some errands today. While we're gone we have decided to leave her cellphone behind to record whatever happens to our dog while we're gone. Hopefully it will be a quiet afternoon.
 
@theocrooks We set up our cameras to record while we ran our errands today. Luckily nothing happened. Grandpa never came out of his room.

Although we were relieved, we are still concerned. We don't like the idea of leaving our dog out as bait when we leave, so we will probably lock her in the bedroom when only her and grandpa will be home.

We have discussed the idea of using an old cell phone as somewhat of a nanny cam to record things while we're out. I hope we never catch him, but what if we do? What would you do in my shoes?
 
@raymond10782 I think everything you're doing is exactly what I'd do in your situation. My past experience with older relatives is that they like to play the "What? Little ole me? I'm harmless as a fly." routine with me when I ask them if they've done anything, so it helps to have proof before you confront them.
 
@raymond10782 He might know; he might have forgotten. A few of my elderly relatives had to be reminded more than once, and they've owned many dogs.

It's definitely a good idea to not leave him alone with the dogs. I hope your camera reveals more information.
 
@livefaith Honestly I think this is the possibility you should roll with.

It's possible he has some form of Alzheimers or dementia that's messing with his judgement and/or his personality. In which case, the earlier he gets medical intervention the better.
 
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