Halloween is over, so the answer to this question isn’t Ghostbusters. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about this much until a recent event in my yard caused me to wonder what I was supposed to do with the body in the yard.

Yes. Body. A random predator left the remains of their meal in my yard. Because there were multiple reasons not to let my dogs take care of removing the carcass, I found myself staring at the screen of my phone wondering who takes care of that. After all, it wasn’t an emergency. Dialing 911 to report a dead body in the yard seemed like a bad idea.

The “CDC” in Los Alamos

If you’re a member of this community or you spend any time at all in our county, there is one number you should have in your contacts. 505-662-8222. The CDC. No. I’m not suggesting the Center for Disease Control is the answer to everything in Los Alamos. Here locally, CDC refers to the Consolidated Dispatch Center. The Dispatch center employs state certified and nationally certified emergency service dispatchers. But they don’t just put you in touch with police and fire services. The dispatchers in Los Alamos can be an amazing resource when you’re not quite sure who to call.

Cat Stuck in a Tree?

It might sound like a children’s story, but this situation occurs more than you might think! With all of the coyotes and bobcats in Los Alamos County, cats have to be more than just wily. They have to be brave enough to run straight up a towering ponderosa or cottonwood tree. If your four legged feline friend happens to climb too high, you might need a hand getting them down. Since cats never do this during regular business hours, calling Dispatch should be your first move. They’ll put you in touch with the right people to get your fluffy pal safely to the ground.

In this particular case, Dispatch arranged for an on call Utility worker to use a bucket truck to retrieve a very scared cat named Ella Marie!

Nuisance Wildlife?

We’ve spent a lot of time lately talking about the fact that Los Alamos County is essentially a suburb of the Santa Fe National Forest. That means you’re more than likely going to need help dealing with unruly wildlife of some kind. Going back to the recent event in my yard, I eventually discovered through a series of dead end phone calls, that I needed to contact Animal Control. However, if I had called Central Dispatch from the beginning, it would have saved me time and effort.

Keep in mind that your wildlife emergency could be just about anything. One Los Alamos resident discovered a deer in their yard that wouldn’t move. They contacted Dispatch and a Police Officer arrived in only a few minutes. When the resident asked why Animal Control hadn’t responded, the officer explained that he was already on duty and had previous experience working for NM Fish & Game. It was faster for him to respond to their situation than activating the on call Animal Control officer. In this case, the deer had been injured, but the experienced officer determined that she didn’t need emergency care and she was able to move away from the yard and continue about her business. The situation was handled quickly and with as little fuss as possible thanks to Consolidated Dispatch! The experienced dispatcher on duty knew which officers were available and exactly what their skill sets were in order to determine the fastest solution to the problem at hand.

Do I Have an Emergency or Not?

Whether you call 911 or 662-8222, your call is going to hit the same call center, it’s just prioritized differently. Interestingly enough, cell phones make emergency calls a little more complicated than they have to be. If you have your data off, or your location service isn’t accurate enough, dialing 911 could end with you talking to a 911 operator in Santa Fe. Of course, they can redirect you or connect you to our local office here, but if you had dialed 662-8222 to start with, there would be no question who was going to answer your call.

There are moments in time where dialing 911 is imperative, instinctive even. But if you’re reporting a wreck with no injuries, a traffic incident, a stray dog wandering around, a car on the road driving erratically, or maybe you need to talk to a police officer or someone from the fire department for a non life threatening situation. Dialing 662-8222 might just save you time. And it also leaves the 911 calls strictly for real emergency situations.

So the next time you’re not entirely sure who to call in Los Alamos, give Dispatch a ring. With their deep knowledge of who does what in Los Alamos, they might just send help that you never would have thought to ask for in the first place. And if you’re looking for help with buying or selling a home in Los Alamos, just contact me! I’m your local real estate expert!