Good for you Alexis! I've also seen the big Monrovia's. And those are EXACTLY what I was referencing when I wrote that bit of advice. If I were to guess, I'd say that the roots on that sucker were either massively severed or circling to the point of a possible no-win. In my opinion, those HUGE plants are for people paying landscapers for instant gratification cuz they're having some big event in their yard this year and want it to look stunning. IMO, a good landscape designer would do their best to explain to a client that buying a plant like this is not a great long-term investment, but is a short term gratifier. In the case of a large plant like this, I'd ONLY take it if you were involved in the digging and could be sure that you weren't going to be putting too much money into something that just won't look as great for the next several years. I remember Paul James (Gardening by the Yard) saying that he usually buys the smallest containers available since they suffer the least transplant shock. Well, I agree to the extent that I will not buy TC's that are just were planted within the last year, whether they're in 1" cells or 1 gallon pots. Generally, I tend to buy 1 gallon pots with either 1 massive eye or 2-3 medium size eyes. And I almost always look at roots!.... I believe it was esther_opal who taught us to always look at roots. You did the right thing! If you want that much instant gratification, but several 1 gallon pots and put them in the same hole!

You're asking the wrong question. What I would have done is irrelevant to your situation, because I have had large dogs for my entire life. Your question should be "what should we have done?" I was fine reading the your post until this part: I thought about knocking on a door, but people rarely answer their doors, if they are even home in our neighborhood, and even if 911 was called, I doubt the cops would have come before it was all over. Everything before that was fact: loose dog, people inexperienced and uncomfortable with dogs, two strangers with five dogs, loose dog attacking five dogs and two people. That last sentence was pure conjecture--assuming that no one would answer their door, assuming that help would not arrive in time, assuming that someone answering a door would be incapable of helping. You were absolutely right, given your inexperience and discomfort around dogs, not to intervene physically yourselves. That might very well have been the equivalent of someone who couldn't swim jumping in to help someone who was drowning. It could have ended very badly for you, as well as for the couple and their dogs. You were, however, absolutely wrong to do nothing. Getting away from the situation and to the nearest potential source of help as fast as possible would be the only responsible thing to do. Leaving those people and their dogs to fend for themselves was clearly not responsible or neighborly. I find it truly sad that this type of response is becoming the norm. Do you even know how this ended for the couple and their dogs?

I can agree with just about everything everyone else has said,but......maybe she was a scammer,maybe not.Maybe she had just gotten off work,maybe she hadn't thought of just having part of the script filled.Some people don't know that can be done.I probably would have taken her back to the pharmacy and paid whatever she needed to get the meds,that is IF I had the money myself and tell her to pay it forward. Last summer DH and I drove into town to get a burger but we didn't want to get out and go in the place to eat it.so we drove a couple of blocks down the street and parked in the Post office parking lot on the main street to eat our burgers and watch the traffic go by. We do that sometime,just to get out of the house.LOL Anyway,I had taken DH's burger and fries out of the bag and handed it to him when a woman walked up to the window and asked if we could give her some money to buy something to eat because she hadn't eaten in a couple of days and she was really hungry.I told her we didn't have any cash,which we didn't but that she could have my burger and fries that I hadn't even taken out of the bag.She said,"Are you sure?,and I told her that she was welcome to it.She thanked me profusely and walked on with the burger and fries tucked under her arm.I don't know if she was feeding me a line or not but I do know that the whole incident had an effect on me that I hadn't anticipated.I started to bawl like a baby,don't know why,it just hit me that way.I told DH that I didn't know if she was really hungry or not but I did what my heart told me to do.If she was scamming us then she was the one who had to live with it.All it cost me was a burger and fries that I probably didn't need anyway,and my sweet DH shared his with me! LOL About a month later we were eating in our favorite hometown restaurant and there she sat with a group from one of the local Churches enjoying a chicken fried steak! So,I really don't know if they were treating her or what but as I said,if she is a scammer she will be the one to suffer in the end.

I'm just wondering if the responses by everyone would be the same if it was a well-dressed female who came running up, maybe even in your own neighborhood. And it shows how important looks are these days. No matter what, the gut feeling should not be quickly dismissed. If you're uncomfortable in a situation, get out of there. Period. Even if the person was being chased by a gang and/or had been mugged already, it's your comfort that's most important. I think I would have asked him WHAT DO YOU WANT? at least a couple times to see if there was a reason. If there was such a situation (that he was in trouble) you could always go ahead, call the police and report it. I'm certain your car isn't totally soundproofed so you wouldn't need to open the window to ask or to listen unless you have a hearing issue unstated. I imagine there's even the remote possibility he was mute too but I'd still ask. I think I would be watching the news to see if there was anything (a body found or whatever) or follow up with the police since I'm a curious person and like to know what, if anything, happened, and I definitely would have called the police about the incident, probably while driving away, for personal safety if nothing else. Probably had them on the phone while I was asking what they wanted. If you're scared it doesn't matter if it's warranted or not, you should still get out of there. And maybe reconsider putting yourself in that situation again. There's depressed areas like that all over but that is irrelevant anyway. This incident could just as easily have happened in Beverly Hills so tying it to the depressed area isn't pragmatic. This type of thing CAN and DOES happen anywhere. Sometimes it's innocent, sometimes not. There's people I don't think should be driving alone in certain areas. I'm real uncomfortable with my sister driving alone a lot of the time but you can't even suggest that these days or you're branded "sexist". With the background I have in law enforcement and crime prevention, I tend to ask "what if" often. What if you had a car breakdown at that moment? Couple flat tires, even one? Some people are known to block roads, flatten tires and the like. People are lulled into a false sense of security these days thinking their cars cannot fail them. There's also the well-known planned "accident" (in any area, not just depressed) that happens in all areas. I know people are going to talk about their God-given right to go where they want and when they want, but, what if??? I remember my aunt relating a situation in Houston where people would lie down in the street to get people to stop. The police told my aunt if she's confronted with this situation and couldn't get around the person, don't stop. Drive over the person if you need to in order to get away. I found that interesting. Glad you're safe.