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Business in a Perfect World

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

In a Perfect World all of our furry domesticated friends, such as dogs and cats, would all have a loving family, a full belly, veterinary care, and a home.  But we do not live in a perfect world – far from it actually. 

Animal Rescue is almost a thankless job.  It is overwhelmingly positive each time an animal finds their “furever” home.  Yet at the same time it is just plain overwhelming to get through each day in this “business”. 

Although we are a charity – and animals are our “business” – we experience many expenses that any business might have.  There is insurance that has to be paid for, maybe even rent.  The phone bill, water bill, electricity, and internet all have to be paid for – as does heat and air-conditioning.  How about paying for shelter upkeep – new roof, hot water heater, fencing…  We also need supplies in order to carry-out our work – bleach, paper towels, mops, sponges, pens, paper, binders – not to mention computers, copiers, and printers…

Then we have the very specific needs when it comes to “supplies” for animal rescue – cages, dog beds, traps, cat toys, transportation, kitty litter, dog food, leashes, shampoo, carriers, scratching posts, collars, towels, blankets, litter pans, nail trimmers, brushes, dog coats, water bowls, veterinary bills – surgeries, vaccinations, lab tests, exams, x-rays, medication… 

We rely heavily on our supporters – volunteers and donors.  After all – in the absence of either of these groups – we would not be able to even exist much less carry out the work that we do.  Again we are a charity – a not-for-profit.  We don’t sell coffee, or trade your stocks, clean your pool, manufacture clothing, or park your car.  All we can really offer is a second chance for a dog or a cat.  That is “our business”.

With this “business” comes great joy, of course.  It also brings daily heartbreak since there is an endless number of animals that are in need – many of which we are not able to help.  EVERY DAY both of our locations get at least 100 requests for help – someone just found a cat, a neighbor is abusing their dog, they can no longer afford medical care for their cat, their mother just died and she had three dogs, a cat was just hit by a car, a wonderful dog is set to be euthanized at a kill shelter, they just found a bunch of kittens…  very sadly, the requests are infinite.  The help we are able to provide is, very sadly, relatively limited.           

In a Semi-Perfect World dogs and cats would have the law on their side, veterinary care would be free to all, and our shelter would be so huge that we would have a space for every single animal that needed our help – oh, and kibble would rain from the sky.  But again – that is not reality. 

We are a no-kill shelter.  Even Kill-Shelters have their own issues with over-crowding where even they cannot take in every animal that they may come across.  But with that type of shelter – new space is created to take in more animals on a daily basis.  They do this by euthanizing those dogs and cats that may have any type of medical condition, be a bit older, may be a bit less trusting due to years of abuse – and any dog or cat who has not been adopted in the three days they have been at the shelter – maybe in a week – maybe they give them up to a month sometimes.           

Again – Bobbi and the Strays IS A NO-KILL SHELTER. That means that once an animal comes into our care – they are in our care until they get adopted – sometimes for years – sometimes for life.  We have a set amount of space and resources for dogs and cats – and space cannot be freed or created to take in a new dog or cat until one actually gets adopted. 

We also may literally be a last chance for a dog who is otherwise very healthy but needs a simple surgery or a cat who simply needs daily medication.  We also get more than our fair share of animals that have been through years of abuse – ranging from simply being ignored their whole life, surviving on the rough streets of New York, used in dog-fighting, or are very sick because their medical condition was never properly treated – or much worse abuse.  These dogs and cats require extra care, funds, and attention and because of that may take even longer to be adopted. 

We do what we can.  To some – well, they know it is a lot.  To others – it may not seem like enough.  We understand someone’s frustration when they are only trying to help a stray they found or an animal they can no longer afford to keep.  We have all been there ourselves.  While one person may be trying to help one animal one day we, as an organization, are experiencing that frustration multiplied many times over on an every-day basis as we try to help as many animals as we can. 

While many people join us in celebrating our joy and happy tears when one of our wards is adopted into a loving home, it is disheartening when a few do not understand our frustrations, sadness, expenses, legal limits, and space restrictions…  They may scream at us and call us names, bad mouth us, and try to get others to stop volunteering for us or donating to our cause.  This is especially heartbreaking since it only further hurts the very dogs and cats they would like us to help as well as the animals that are already in our care.

We help as many animals that we are able to with the limited resources we have.  All we can do is try to remain positive and push through another day and then another and another.  The intelligent and beautiful dogs and cats that we open our hearts to keep us concentrated on our purpose – to find them loving homes for life.  So we keep pushing forward in a world that always seems to push back.  Ah – “business” in a world far from perfect…

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Take a Penny, Give a Penny

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Story submitted by Emily Gilbert, a Bobbi and the Strays volunteer.
Penny was a used as a “bait” dog in illegal dog fighting. Most people know what this is. If you do not – the bait dog is usually chained, muzzled, and/or confined in some way so that another dog (the fighting dog) can attack it freely for what some cruel people deem as “sport”. Sometimes the bait dog will be used as a kind of prop in order to train a fighting dog to become even more aggressive during an actual dog fighting match.
Penny was seized by police during a dog-fighting raid and sadly, soon found herself on the euthanasia list at NYC’s Animal Care and Control – not that she hadn’t already been through enough. (At least her “owner” went to jail for animal cruelty.)
Luckily, Bobbi and the Strays pulled her from the ACC and gave her a second chance. While Penny did not bear physical scars, her emotional scars were very much apparent. She was extremely timid, yet sweet – never aggressive! She would cower in her cage seemingly afraid of the entire world. It always took her time to come out of her shell for newer people or newer places – but once she did she was all kisses and love. Being so shy for new people – she was repeatedly overlooked by potential adopters. Poor Penny went two years at the shelter without any interest.

Penny at an adoption event

When I met her, I knew immediately that she was special and just needed a patient person to draw out her personality and make her feel safe. 

Penny meeting some children at an adoption event

Six years prior to that my family had put our dachshund of 17 years to sleep. My mother said that she could never go through that again and swore she would never have another dog because of it. But recently she had started talking about possibly adopting a dog. When she said this I told her that she had to drive up to New York and meet Penny.
She and my stepfather drove from Baltimore and sat in Penny’s run with her for an hour, earning her trust. They threw tennis balls for her to fetch and patiently waited until she felt comfortable enough to come near them. By the end of the hour they were able to take her for a walk and then she jumped into the back of my car and left the shelter for good. My mom and Tom were in love. 

Penny with her new mommy and daddy

That night, just over a year ago, they took Penny back to Baltimore and she’s been with them ever since. She loves to play fetch in the backyard and go for car rides. And she’s taken over their queen-sized bed, in which she spends her afternoons napping. She’s a happy dog. She wiggles her butt and wags her tail with excitement. Every day she’s a little less shy and lets more and more people, things and experiences into her world.

Penny - home at last : - )

As happy as she is, it’s even more amazing to see how happy she’s made my mother and stepfather. We can’t imagine our family without her. She’s proof that an overlooked shelter dog can turn out to be a very special, amazing companion. If Bobbi and the Strays hadn’t given her a chance and cared for her during her long wait for a forever family, our family just wouldn’t be the same.

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Posted in Happy Tails, Rescue Stories, Shelter Stories, Volunteer Vittles | 5 Comments »

Wednesday Morning

Saturday, July 23rd, 2011

Its 6:37am and I am on my way to our Freeport location, on time (for once!) to pick up a dog to be spayed. I have to bring her back to Queens where she was found so she can be spayed at the clinic. There is no traffic! It seems like its a good morning.

My phone rings and one of my employees, Tara’s, name pops up. I think she is calling to make sure I am coming for Yolanda, the dog, so she doesn’t feed her… or maybe, at worst, there is another litter of kittens in a box by the door…(someone dropped off kittens in the middle of the night last week)

“Are you coming here?” She asks. “yeah…” I said suspicion rising in my voice.

“Ok good because there is a dog that was tied to the fence but he ate threw the leash and now he is hiding in the bushes… actually there are two leashes so there is probably another dog somewhere…”

She pauses and before I can say anything she says a little more stressed, “Actually he is running down the street…”

“Ok if he is scared, see if you can corner him somewhere or get him in the yard. If he is running towards Mill, don’t chase him because I dont want him to run into traffic. Ill be there in ten minutes”

As I speed down the southern state my mind is racing. I forgot to tell her to watch her body language, I forgot to tell her to avoid eye contact, I forgot to tell her so many things… I know Tara is capable and has probably caught many dogs running in front of the shelter, but I also know one little mistake and the dog can be gone. All of the dogs we have rescued come flashing back in my mind… most memorable Sadie, Sonny, Baisley, Frances….and all the drama that happened with their rescues…

As I turn onto Rider Place, I see Tara at the end of the street. There is an alley way between the industrial buildings with lots of trees, bushes, dumpsters, trash… a good hide out for a dog… I try to be quiet as I approach as I don’t want to scare the dog but accidentally run over the food bowls she left out… oops… there goes that plan…

She is kneeling towards the end of the alley way and is facing sideways… non-threatening… I creep quietly along the wall. She is doing everything right. I don’t see the dog though. She is facing tons of trees and bushes with a fence behind it. Its possible she has him semi cornered. I see the branches move and hear the leaves rustling.

“They are both back there,” she tells me.

“Anyway out?”

“there’s an opening in the fence.. one ran out the other side but now came back in.”

I told her I would go around the building and come from the other side of the fence in case they tried to run out that way. The opening is only a gate that was left open. How lucky did we get? I tied it shut so there is no way for them to get out if we can just corner them in that area.

Brian, another worker, shows up, thank god.  We slowly start enclosing… I have to break branches and crawl on my hands and knees to get through the thick growth. I focus on one dog and Tara and Brian go for the one closer to the fence.

When I see her, my heart breaks. She has almost no fur and her paws are swollen. She is lying down curled up in a ball, scared out of her mind. She is backed up against a wall and a tree. She starts to try and back up more… I immediately but slowly drop to the ground on my stomach to show her I am no threat. She relaxes a bit but still looks unsure.. I am about to roll over on my back like a dog, but as I slowly reach my hand out she sniffs it calmly and licks it. She is still wearing part of the leash she chewed off. Avoiding direct eye contact, I take that leash off and put the leash Tara gave me on her. I think the hard part is over…but I was wrong.

Most dogs once they are leashed, may fight a bit but then get up and walk with you. Most. Not all. Some just get up and walk right away. But this dog just refused to budge. I know it sounds mean to pull them but sometimes you have to. But the collar she was wearing was weak and could slip over her head or snap. I ask Tara to hold the leash and I run to the car to get a slip leash and put it over her head. We manage to pull her out from behind the tree. Tara holds the dogs head straight (so she won’t turn and bite with me) with the slip leash and I pick her up. She is not aggressive at all, just terrified. I carry her to my car. She smells horrible. She is so scared she curls up in a ball in my back seat…

Then I go back to help Brian and Tara with the male. They got the leash around his neck but he is biting the leash and not letting go. We put a second leash around his neck and between the two of us we are able to walk him out to where the cars are. He every so often flips out and tries to back out of the leashes. He isn’t aggressive, but not as docile as the female. I am uncertain about lifting him into my car with the female in there so I drive her back to the shelter and Tara and Brian walk the male one block to the shelter with two leashes….

I have to carry the female from my car to the yard. Then I go back to help Brian and Tara but they have it under control… Taking a closer look at the male we see his eyes are blood red and his mouth is bleeding, probably from biting the fence all night trying to escape. He has more fur (slightly) than the female but he is way more swollen… I am already thinking about how I am going to get these to the vet, how much pain these two must be in and how terrified they are…

When we put the male in the yard, he won’t move. Just stays there like a statue… with his head down… and then slowly, slowly, slowly… he lowers himself to the ground and lies down… not moving… too scared to move a muscle…

“let them be for awhile, let them relax,” I tell Tara and Brian. They are scared out of their minds and need time. the best thing to do sometimes is just to let them acclimate.

I am late for getting Yolanda to her spay appointment and she HAS to go today because she is getting adopted. After I take Yolanda, I have to take Molly, another chi to a different vet to have a mass removed from her head. Molly is also getting adopted today. Our vet doesn’t come till Friday but I am sure these two will have to go into the clinic for dips and tests… I will need help getting them there… they can’t even walk on a leash… Before I get overwhelmed I tell myself to focus on getting Yolanda and Molly where they need to be and I will deal with the pitties when I get back. They are safe at the shelter now. One thing at a time, one thing at a time.

I take Yolanda out of her cage and walk her and put her in my car. She wants to sit on my lap which is fine with me so I can keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t chew my car. As I pull out of the parking lot, I take a deep breath. We got the dogs. they are safe. I’m going to make my appointments… everything is okay. Then the phone rings… Its Melissa… someone left six cats (one adult and five kittens) in a carrier in front of another one of our locations.

And this is how the day goes.

The two pitties after their rescue

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The Search For Frances Part 5

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

The next morning I practically leaped out of bed and ran to the car and drove to Bath Beach in eager anticipation that I would find Frances waiting in the trap for us. I was so excited and I really, really, really thought that after everything we had been through that finally we would be rewarded with  being able to rescue Frances. But it wasn’t to be. Little did I know, the search was barely half over that Sunday morning.

When I got there, Christine was already there. There had been a cat in the trap but no Frances. We waited awhile in Christine’s car down the block away from the trap, out of sight. Hours went by. Finally we couldn’t take it anymore. We decided to go post some fliers in case maybe she got scared of this area yesterday and set up a new “home base” or if she was on the move again. I tried not to think about the second option. If she had started running again last night she could be anywhere by now.

We searched Shore Parkway East. We searched back by the sanitation yard. We went into the offices to give them fliers. There was one girl who said she would make copies to hand out to all the fliers.  We went on to a closed off abandoned beach by the water to search. There was no sign of her.

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Then we went back to Calvert Vaux Park.  Part of this park was where we thought we had her cornered yesterday. We drove into the park behind the Home Depot.  Were you technically supposed to drive in the park? Hard to say. There were no signs saying you couldn’t but the gates were barely wide enough for her jeep to fit through.  We could cover more ground faster in the car and Frances would less likely to be startled or feel she was being chased. We just wanted to observe. If she ran into an enclosed area and we saw her, it was our best chance of getting her.

As we drove in, I noticed a guy who worked at Home Depot walk in behind us and stare after us. “That guy is watching us,” I told Christine. She didn’t care. Christine was fearless.

“Let him watch,” She said. “What’s he going to do?”

We drove slowly through the woods. It was freezing outside. I just prayed that Frances found someplace warm to sleep and some food to eat. We made our way back into the parts that were technically closed off to the public.  Christine told me this is where she met the homeless people yesterday. I had seen their tents where they sleep when we were chasing Frances yesterday. They only spoke Spanish but Christine’s friend Ramone had translated. They said they would keep an eye out for Frances. Christine asked them if it was cold back here. They told her it was beyond cold. When she got home she started a coat and blanket drive to help them out. Just walking around outside made me shiver. I couldn’t imagine having to sleep out in the cold.

We were about to leave when we saw them come out of the woods. Christine, who knew some Spanish, asked if they had seen Frances but no one had.  They asked her for money. She gave them ten dollars. Then we turned to leave. Though they were very nice, it probably wasn’t smart to be back in a closed off area of a park with five or six strange men.

When we drove up to the gate behind Home Depot I saw that it was closed… with a huge chain around it… and a big pad lock. The guy who watched us before had purposely locked us in!  A string of expletives left Christine’s mouth. Now we were really locked in a closed off section of the park. I could walk around the gate into the water to get out. I had big rain boots on because the forecast had predicted showers. There was no way to get Christine’s jeep out though.

After the initial shock and fear wore off, we took some deep breaths. There was no  other way to drive out of the park.  We could call the police… but we probably really weren’t supposed to drive back here…

“Go to Home Depot and buy bolt cutters,” Christine said.  So I walked through the water walked around to Home Depot wishing I had gotten a better look at the guy who locked us in so I could kick him in the balls and bought the biggest bolt cutters I could find.  Walking back to the park and seeing Christine and the jeep locked behind the iron gates I had to laugh. What else could go wrong? I should  not have asked.

Luckily Christine is much stronger than I am and she was able to cut the chain. There was no way I was doing it.   Christine told me to return the bolt cutters but I decided to hold onto them. Who knows what other situations we were going to get ourselves in.

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As we were driving out, we got a call from Sean Casey, a friend who has his own animal rescue, that someone had seen a dog that fit France’s description running in the parking lot of the VA hospital. The dog then ran out and was running towards Dyker Beach Golf Course.  I quickly looked on the map. It was the next neighborhood over from Bath Beach. My heart sank. She was on the run again. Sean gave us the quickest route there and told us he would meet us at the Golf  Course. The person who saw Frances lost sight of her but it was likely she ran into the golf course.  He said many stray dogs end up there.

As we drove down Cropsey my heart sank more. So many busy blocks. So much traffic. It was quite a distance. Considering how far she ran from Prospect Park it wasn’t that far, but it wasn’t near where we set the trap. Cropsey turned into 7th Ave when we made a left. The golf course was on our right. We saw the VA hospital on our left and then Poly Prep school which also had vast park like grounds.

The sky was turning dark when we turn into the golf course. Sean was there waiting for us. He had spoken to the people at the golf course and they agreed to give us some golf carts to look around the grounds for the dog.  I called some volunteers to let them know that Frances was on the move again. Vicki and Carla were coming out to meet us.  Sean told us he would come back if we spotted her again and needed help. We thanked him and took off, a shaky start on the hilly terrain of the course, but we were off, continuing our adventure.

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The grounds were sprawling.  Most of it open. There weren’t many people playing golf in this miserable weather which was good for us.  There were a couple of densely wooded areas that we had to get out and search on foot. The tree branches and thorny bushes created walls of growth that were difficult to get through. Christine told me that this is what the part of the Rockaways looked like where Frances was born. It was possible she thought this was home and was hiding here.  We took the flashlights and split up. It had started to drizzle lightly.  The wooded area I was searching bordered a chain link fence that connected to a park. There was a hole in the fence where Frances could have easily slipped out.  Even if she did ran in here, she could have ran out this way. Further into the woods I saw another tent where a homeless person was living.  You couldn’t see it at all from the golf course.  I made my way around it and though the woods. It was a slow and painful search. Painful because most of the branches had sharp thorns on them that my clothes kept getting stuck to.

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We were halfway through the course when Vicki called and said she was here with her dog Murray. We were hoping that Frances would see or smell Murray and that would entice her to come closer. We got another golf cart and split up. I took one and Christine, Vick and Murray were on another.  They covered the perimeter and I went into search the wooded areas in the middle of the course.

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About an hour later I caught up with them. Vicki and Christine were laughing hysterically. Apparently when Murray saw a squirrel he had jumped off the cart to chase it and Vicki was still holding the leash. Pull Murray got dragged before Christine could slam on the brakes.  Poor Murray!!

“You are supposed to find Frances, not squirrels!” I said petting him.

We agreed that we didn’t think Frances was here. I noticed cameras all over the course. No one had seen her at all. We searched all the wooded areas. The girl who sighted Frances wasn’t sure she ran into the golf course. It just seemed like the place she would go. She could have run across 86th steet. She could have ran back over to the other side and gone into Poly Prep. Or she could have ran in and then ran out the hole in the fence I saw.

We decided to go back to posting fliers and hope for another sighting. There wasn’t any fliers in this neighborhood. We had a lot of work to do.

We met Carla outside of the golf course. Carla and Vicki went together and Christine and I went together.  There was a dog run outside of the golf course. Carla and Vicki started there. Christine and I went back to check the trap first, just in case, she ran back that way. She wasn’t there but we caught another cat. Christine went into the woods and freed him. We met some more volunteers, the Mohler sisters, at the trap who were going to help us post fliers.

Then we started to drive back towards the golf course down Cropsey. There were fliers all the way to Bay Parkway. North of Bay Parkway we started to put up more fliers.  We would stop every block and I would do one side of the street and Christine would post on the other. It started to rain harder. We had to wrap the tape around the whole flier.

The other volunteers called and said they were heading home hours later. It was dark and the freezing rain made it hard to post.  Christine and I continued till we ran out of tape. Then we went to a store on 86th Street and bought twelve more rolls. Then we noticed  both of our cell phones were dying. Our numbers were on the fliers so this was a big problem.  We went to three different stores looking for a car charger for at least one of our phones. Finally at PC Richards we found one. Then we went back out to start posting more. We drove all the way down Bay Ridge Parkway posting in case Frances ran down that that way. The rain stopped and we thanked the gods and then it started again and we cursed them but we kept going and going till well past two am.  She was on the move again and there was no telling how far she would go. We wanted to get there first.

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Tell us Your STORY!

Monday, January 10th, 2011

We are looking for YOU to tell YOUR story on our blog!  So please share your story! 

 We are looking for stories that incorporate Bobbi and the Strays as well as tell your own story.  Here are just a handful of ideas to get you started:

*  a “happy tail” – the adoption of your dog or cat from BATS 

*  your experience as a volunteer with us

*  how we helped reunite you with your lost dog or cat

*  your experience as a foster parent for one of our animals

*  a funny story about Bobbi : – )

*  your experience at one of our events

*  a rescue you were involved with 

 

Now that you have the idea of what types of stories we are looking for – why not submit your story for consideration?  

Please email it to shelter@bobbicares.org.

 

And if you have some great pictures or even a video to go along with your blog entry – we may be able to post them as well.  Please email us for instructions on how to submit video or pictures prior to sending them to us. 

 

Here are just a few stories that were submitted in the past:

A Ruffy Story   

Milo’s Legacy

Why I Volunteer

Meeting Crookshanks 

 

Thank you for your support!

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The Search For Frances Part 4

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

The next morning was Saturday, exactly one week after Frances had gotten loose in Prospect Park.  One of our wonderful volunteers, Bonnie Folz, had organized a search party for Frances. We were to meet at the park on Shore Parkway East (the one we drove in last night) at 8am. I showed up on time somehow (considering I got three hours sleep) with a huge cup of coffee. Bonnie and another volunteer, Kristie were already at the meeting spot. Christine was already driving around the park looking for Frances. Soon other volunteers showed up and Bonnie divided us into groups and gave us a section of the neighborhood to search and cover with fliers.

Kristie and I went together in my car. We were going to finish some of the areas on Cropsey that we may have missed. As we crossed over the Belt Parkway I got a call from the woman who called me yesterday saying the dog was in front of her house on Shore Parkway West. I raced over and Kristie called the sighting in to Bonnie who relayed the message to the other searchers.

We still had no idea if the dog was Frances but if it wasn’t at least we would know.  We met the woman and her daughter out front of the house. They told us the dog was on the other side of the fence, on the grassy area along Belt Parkway. I didn’t like that she was so close to the highway but I wasn’t really nervous yet. Denise, another volunteer joined us, and we found an opening in the fence where the dog must have slipped though and started walking west, the direction they saw the dog run in. We walked all the way down till we couldn’t anymore. There were no more holes in the fence she could have went though. We met two more volunteers, Sandy and Midge, down at the end. No one had seen the dog. The woman said she had gone inside to get food for the dog and then when she came out she didn’t see the dog anymore. Its possible the dog changed direction and ran the other way. There was some wooded area the other way where the dog could be hiding.

Christine called me to ask me what was going on. I told her about the sighting and told her to drive slowly down the Belt Parkway East and look for the dog.  Denise, Kristie and I entered the woods. Midge and Sandy stayed on the street in case the dog showed up there.The three of us were quiet, moving slowly. If we saw the dog, we weren’t to make eye contact. We were to ignore  her. We didn’t want to send her running into traffic. Once we found the position of the dog we would try to either corner the dog against the fence or flush the dog out away from the Belt Parkway.

Then suddenly I saw something move in the weeds and I knew, though I could barely see the animal, that it was Frances. I don’t know how I knew, but I was suddenly one hundred percent sure. It was her. My heart was racing.  Kristie and Denise didn’t see her. We moved a little bit more and I could see Frances clearly. She was just sitting there up on the hill near the highway. Denise and Kristie went up the hill and walked along the side of the highway in case Frances tried to run that way.

Frances saw us and ran parallel to the highway. I lost sight of Kristie, Denise and Frances.  I walked slowly. The branches were covered in thorns. Every step made a crunch sound. I was holding my breath. Then I saw her again. She was sitting at the top of the hill again. Very still. I called Kristie and Denise to tell them to walk back and try to get Frances to run down the hill, away from the traffic. Frances didn’t see me yet.

I saw Christine’s yellow jeep pull over on the side of the Belt Parkway about 50 feet away from the start of the woods. She got out of the car and was looking around. Her friend, Ramone was with her. Ramone helps feed the ferals in Rockaway where Frances used to live before Christine rescued her.

Then suddenly Frances took off running straight towards Christine.  Christine didn’t see her till the last second and was surprised.

“Frances!” she yelled. Frances made a turn and ran through the hole in the fence onto Shore Parkway. Christine ran after her. I ran after Christine.  Frances bolted across Cropsey Ave. Christine and I followed, all three of us managing not to get hit by a car somehow. I didn’t want to lose sight of Frances. If she ran into someone’s yard it would be the perfect opportunity to get her. Cornering her was the only way we would get a high flight dog like her.

A car stopped ahead and picked up Christine. I recognized it as Carla’s car.  Carla is another volunteer. By the time I crossed the west bound side of Cropsey I had lost sight of Frances. She had to go in one of these yards. I continued on foot searching yards while Carla and Christine drove ahead. Then Bonnie called me on the phone to say Frances was spotted two blocks over. How did she get there so fast??? I ran as fast as I could which wasn’t very fast. I have short legs and often compare myself to a corgi =)  By the time I got to where Bonnie said she was, I got another call saying she was four more blocks in a different direction. Then Bonnie called again. She was trailing her on 28th Avenue when Frances suddenly made a u-turn and bolted. By the time Bonnie turned around in her car she was gone. My phone was ringing like crazy.  People in the neighborhood were spotting her. She was all over Bath Beach in about ten minutes.

Finally we all somehow managed to meet up. She wasn’t running into anyone’s yard. She was running across busy streets and she was going to get hit by a car.  We needed to set a trap. Christine had her trap at her house in Astoria. Bonnie and another volunteer, Bill, drove back to Christine’s house to get the trap.

By this time, more volunteers showed up.  I was in the car with Carla and Kristie. Carla was driving. People were calling me still reporting sightings. I had to tell everyone NOT to chase her. You won’t get her. She will run into traffic. I cringed as I heard people chase her. “Oh god, she almost got hit by a bus,” one of the callers said. I couldn’t take it anymore. I handed my phone to a calmer Kristie to field the calls.

Then we saw Frances run down 27th Ave and under the overpass to the other side of Shore Parkway.

“Follow her in the car,” I told Carla. Frances was running right down the street. I wanted to see where she was going and also try to herd her off the main road and down a safer, side street.

“What do I do? Should I throw food out?” Carla said.

“No, you will just scare her more. Just drive along side her and slowly inch over so she’ll turn down a side street. We have to try and get her in an enclosed space.”

And it worked. Frances turned down Bay 44 which was a  dead end street with a school and two other buildings and a couple of fenced in yards. Perfect. At the end of the street she made a sharp right. There was a huge open gate that led to an abandoned field.

I told Carla to stay at the gate in the car to watch to see  if Frances came back this way. I didn’t know what was in the field yet. Kristie and I jumped out of the car. We turned the corner and saw the field was huge. It went on and on and was covered in tall grass. If she ran into the grass we would lose her. There was a dirt path that Frances was running down. I took off as fast as my corgi legs could carry me so I wouldn’t lose sight of her.  It wasn’t fast enough. There was a split in the road and one went up a hill and one curved away. I couldn’t tell which way she went. Kristie stayed at the split in case Frances came back out and I took the road that went up the hill. There was an abandoned foundation of a building, dumped construction materials and garbage, lots of tall grass, but no Frances.

At the top of the hill I could see there was a sharp drop, then more of the lot and then a dilapidated dock that went out into the water.  Carla had called the rest of the crew with the location. It didn’t seem like Frances could get out of this lot. There was a wooded area and then a fence to the park we had met at earlier. That part of the park that the field bordered was closed off to the public for renovations. Then there was the water ahead of me and to the right of me. The part that bordered Shore Parkway appeared to be fenced in too.

I got a call that she was spotted and being trailed by Ramone and Eddie, another volunteer (the volunteer who helped us rescue Baisley and Sonny, two other skittish dogs) somewhere in the field. I walked over towards the park, past a small beach and into the wooded area. There were tarps set up. Homeless people were living here. It was freezing. I felt horrible.

Then I heard something on a hill above me. I saw Eddie and Ramone. They told me she had come this way. I went up the hill. It led right into a part of the park that I thought was closed off. They told me she saw her running around in here. It was a big football field but bordered by woods and bushes.They lost her somewhere in the field. Eddie went back to the car to get his phone and Ramone and I kept walking.  That is when I saw her run across the field. She was so far away. It didn’t seem like there was anyway out except back into the abandoned lot. We saw her run into the bushes. Then out again. When she saw me from across the field she stopped and bolted the other way. She was so skittish. It would be impossible to get near her unless we had her trapped.

I called Eddie to tell him to come back because she was here. Kathy, another volunteer, still had his phone and Eddie hadn’t gotten back there yet. Then I got a call that Frances was running down Bay 44th Street! She had gotten out of the park somehow! We ran back to the field and Christine picked me and Ramone up in her jeep and we raced out. We didn’t want to lose sight of her.

I learned later that Carla had gone about 90 miles an hour in reverse going against traffic on Shore Parkway trying not to lose sight of  Frances. This was after Eddie’s foot got caught in the backseat of the car when he was trying to get out as Frances was running head on towards them. Eddie has a knack for tackling dogs.  Kristie and Carla were screaming, “Go! Go! Hurry!” and Eddie was saying, “I can’t!!!” because his foot was stuck.  He was just about to take his shoe off when he freed himself. He had missed Frances by a couple of seconds.

Carla did lose sight of Frances and we all reconvened back by the woods where we first saw Frances on Shore Parkway West. This was the area that she was sighted in the most. This was where we would set the trap. Bonnie and Bill came back and we worked on setting the trap up. Meanwhile I was still getting sighting phone calls. She was up on 86th Street. She was over by Caesars Bay Shopping Center. She was on Cropsey. She was on Bath. She was everywhere. We had to let her be.  They set the trap up. Put in the blanket from Vicki’s house and lots of tasty food. We trailed garlic out.  It was late afternoon.  Some of the volunteers left. Some of us took a break for lunch while others waiting in their cars out of sight watching the trap.

At five I drove home to let my own dogs out and feed them. Then I came back at seven and met Christine. We sat in my car by the trap waiting. Frances had to come back. This seemed to be her home base. Kristie had left a box of Dunkin Donut munchkins in my car. I felt like a cop on a stake out in the movies as I sat there for hours eating donuts and waiting.  It was dark out. Around 11 I started to fall asleep. Christine stayed awake. I would dream about Frances. I would drift in and out of sleep, weaving dreams.

Every time I woke up I immediately looked at the trap. Everytime it was empty. I drifted back to sleep. The last dream I remember me, Eddie and Christine were walking down the Belt Parkway and there was Frances just sitting there on the side of the road, perfectly still, threatening to bolt out into traffic at any second.

I woke up terrified.  It was two thirty am. Neither Christine or I wanted to leave but we had to. We need to get rest so we could be ready for tomorrow. We would come back early… perhaps Frances would come back when the sun came up to look for food and she would go into the trap then… What an amazing feeling… though we didn’t catch her today, we knew where she was. It made a huge difference. Last night standing in Coney Island it felt hopeless. Now it seemed certain we would have her by tomorrow night at the latest. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

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The Search for Frances Part 3

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Its been 15 days since Frances went missing in Prospect Park and so much has happened since “Part 2″. But let me pick up where I left off…

Its the Thursday after Frances ran off into Prospect Park. We woke up that morning still thinking that Frances was hiding somewhere within the park.  Then my phone started ringing off the hook.

“There has been a possible sighting on Bay 41 and Shore Parkway!”  Someone had seen a dog that looked like Frances a couple of minutes ago walking in between the parked cars and the fence of Shore Parkway West.

WHERE was THAT??? I quickly googled it. It was almost 6 miles from Prospect Park.

“Its been five days since she went missing,” Bonnie, who was coordinating our efforts, said. “She could have traveled that far.”  Its true. I have heard and been involved with rescues of dogs that have traveled many miles from where they went missing. I still had my doubts though because Frances was so terrified. She would have had to cross many busy streets in bustling neighborhoods. I was sure that Frances would be hiding in a hollowed out tree or under a rock in Prospect Park. Still we have to thoroughly check every reported sighting.

I was on the road in five minutes to the area that I would later find out was called Bath Beach.  Christine was stuck at work but called Sean Casey, another rescuer based in Brooklyn, to go over as well to help out. Sean called before I got there and said he drove up and down the street and around the area but did not see the dog. He told me to call if I spotted her and he would come right back to help.

When I got there I parked my car. I wanted to check in every yard, under every bush and car. The dog may be hiding. I still wasn’t convinced this dog was Frances but I wanted to rule it out. I put on gloves, scarf, hood. The wind was bitter but I sucked it up. I walked from Bay 50th all the way down to the end of this stretch of Shore Parkway.

It ended in a dead end street. There was an abandoned building. It was abandoned it mid construction years ago and even in broad daylight it gave me the chills. Weeds took over the fenced in grounds on one side. There was a huge opening to the building but there were no holes in the fence where anyone, including a dog could get through. I walked the whole perimeter twice just to make sure.  I did find a cat colony in the back by the dumpsters. I checked under the dumpsters. Frances was originally found hiding under a similar container in Far Rockaway.  Then I checked the other side of the building that did not have a fence around it. There was a dark alley way piled high with trash and abandoned construction materials. I had to crawl under boards with my flashlight. There was so many places where a 30 lb dog could hide. When a cat jumped out of a hiding place I nearly had a heart attack. I tried to laugh but I was a little shaken. I hurried through the rest of that side of the building.  There was a mattress and blanket like a homeless person was living there. I felt sad and like I was being intrusive. I quickly finished the search there and returned sadly to Shore Parkway.

I walked back to my car and got fliers. I posted them on every pole down that stretch of Shore Parkway. I stopped a couple of people to ask if they saw the dog.  One man said he saw a dog this morning around the time of the sighting but he didn’t speak English well. When I showed him the picture and asked if it was the same dog, he didn’t know what I was asking.

After posting on Shore Parkway I drove around the blocks a couple of times.  Could this dog really have traveled this far? Or was this a different lost dog that looked similar to Frances?

As I headed home on the Belt Parkway I had a nagging feeling. I got off at the next exit, turned around and headed back to Bath Beach.  I drove down Shore Parkway again. I circled around the blocks. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something. After an hour with no sightings I headed home.

As I was driving home I got a phone call from a young woman who had seen our flier in Prospect Park.

“I saw your dog on Sunday,” she said. “She was running out of the southwest side of the park near the Parade Grounds. I guess it was Parade Place towards Caton Ave? She was running like something scared her. We tried to get her attention but she wouldn’t even look at us. She was wearing a pink and purple collar with tags… I thought someone would have found her and returned her by now…”

My heart sank.  Frances left the park for sure. I thanked the woman and saved her phone number just in case. I drove straight to the area she had said she seen Frances. It was a busy area. Lots of foot traffic and cars. Loud and bustling.  Frances seemed like she would want to avoid all of this, but if she was in flight drive and scared she would just be running…

Later that day I was going to meet Christine in Prospect Park.  I told her about the phone call and how the woman described Frances. She described the collar she was wearing (which was info that was not on our posters). I was sure this sighting was valid. Furthermore if she ran out of the park on Sunday and kept going in that direction, its not unlikely that she would have ended up in Bath Beach.

We had to check the trap before going out to Bath Beach. We decided to take the trap out of the park first if we didn’t catch a dog and then head towards Bath Beach. Going back up to Quaker Hill in the dark on this freezing cold night with only one other person didn’t really excite me but it made no sense to leave the trap there… all sightings indicate that Frances left the park. So we walked through the darkness of the park, through the woods, past the waterfall and around to the hole in the fence to Quaker Hill.

My heart was pounding. I was expecting the Cane Corso or a rabid raccoon to greet us at any second. The trap seemed further up the hill then I remembered it. About halfway up I shone my flashlight on two gleaming eyes, right by the trap.

“Christine!” I whispered. “Look!”

“Is that in the trap?” She asked.

“No, remember the tree is in front of the trap. We cant see it from here.”

“Its just a raccoon,”She said.

The story about the rabid raccoon attacking the woman in the park was racing through my mind.

“Um, do you think we should wait to get the trap?” I said.

“No, they won’t bother us,” Christine said.

“What is they have rabies?”

She stopped in her tracks. We started at the gleaming eyes.

“I dont’ think their eyes. I think they are lights from the other side of the hill,” Christine said.

“Are you sure?” I was frozen.

“Yes, see? That is the top of the hill and then those lights are from the other side.” She started to walk again.

I breathed a sight of relief. She was right. I started to walk but I kept my flashlight on the lights.

I stopped short. “Umm, Christine, they are moving.”  They were definitely eyes. “I’m scared.”  My feet were firmly planted on the ground.

“You’re with me,” she said. “Nothing is going to happen. Just follow me. I will go first and just shine your light so I can see.”

Not wanting to feel like a total sissy I sucked it up and followed her.  When we got to the trap, the eyes were gone. I was still on edge. Christine was completely relaxed. I hurried and gathered up the tarp trying not to drop my flashlight and the snag pole I was carrying. Christine dragged the trap down the hill. We put it on the hand truck she brought with her and we got out of there, not as fast I would have liked, but as fast as I could move the relaxed Christine along.

We went to the car and loaded the trap in. Christine borrowed her neighbors car to transport the five foot trap. Then a volunteer named April met us. She had made more fliers for us to post. I thanked her and then we were off.

We drove down to Bath Beach from Prospect Park taking local roads that Frances may have taken. It was long. Lots of streets to cross.  Lots of crowded areas.  It seemed unlikely that she would make it this far… she was once a feral dog but the area she lived in was not populated like this. I had a sinking feeling but refused to give up home. You hear stories about dogs traveling through different states to go home… We thought maybe Frances was trying to get back to Far Rockaway and was following the scent of the beach and ocean.

Once in Bath Beach I showed Christine the area where she was sighted. We got out of the car and walked around. “This is so far…” Christine said sadly looking around.

We posted more fliers anyway. We covered the area the best we could. We did the other side of Shore Parkway, the Eastbound side and then further down Cropsey going South towards Coney Island.  She drove and I jumped out of the car. Areas where it wasn’t so busy we both jumped out. We left fliers with Sanitation. We stopped everyone, especially people walking a dog, to see if they had seen Frances. No one had.

It was after midnight when we headed back towards Prospect Park. We posted more there, just in case. We posted heavily in the area where she was seen leaving the park.  “She could have ran back in. Maybe someone saw her change direction,” Christine said.

We went into the police station near the park. The officers were extremely nice and helpful. They asked us if we had seen the Cane Corso in Prospect Park that no one has been able to catch.  “Yes,” Christine said. “He will be our next project after we find Frances.”

Around two in the morning we called it a night.

The next day, Friday, I went over to Prospect Park early to finish posting on some side streets that Frances could have taken when she ran out of the park. Then I went to Staples and picked up three hundred more fliers and posted some more.  Sometimes people don’t stop to look at one flier here and there. But if they see it constantly they pay attention and that is what we needed.

Sometime in the day I got a phone call from a man who said he saw Frances last Sunday, the day after she went missing. She was still in Prospect Park by the lull water just sitting there quietly. He was with his dog who approached her and Frances and the dog sniffed each other. He noted the pink and purple collar. Then suddenly something seemed to spook Frances and she took off like the wind towards the Southwest side of Prospect Park.  Another piece to the puzzle…. But we were still trailing Frances. We wanted to get ahead of her.

Then I got a call from a kind lady in Bath Beach who lived right on Shore Parkway. She said she had seen Frances or a dog that looked like Frances out front of her house on Bay 41 and Shore Parkway. The dog was skittish.  She was not wearing a collar. She got a pretty good look at her. But she couldn’t tell if the dog was male or female.  She said the dog ran away when she approached. She ran inside and got some food. She just set the food down on the street and walked away. The dog came to eat but if the lady took a step towards the dog, the dog would run again so she let her eat.

The not having a collar detail didn’t bother me too much. In six days a dog can lose her collar. Vicki, Frances foster mom, said Frances ate her collar off three times in her house. The dogs behavior sounded just like Frances.

Christine and Sloane picked me up from the southwest side of Prospect Park. I filled them in on the new call.

Sloane, Christine and I drove to Bath Beach. It seemed likely that if she was running, in flight mode and not looking back, perhaps she did run straight down to Bath Beach. Its been six days since she has been missing. Its not far to travel six miles in six days. we took a slightly different local route there, posting big, colorful 11×14 posters that Sloane had made for us all along the way.

We passed an enormous cemetery on the way. Sometimes lost dogs hide out in cemeteries. We posted heavily around there. The gates were locked and it was pitch black inside.  I was starting to get an unsettling feeling. Frances could be anywhere in that cemetery. So many places to hide. It would be hard to search every place in the daylight… not only could she be anywhere in the cemetery, she could be anywhere in Brooklyn… or even Queens by now. She may not even be alive. If she ran out in the street, maybe she got hit by a car. It was something I pushed out of my mind. I didn’t have the strength consider it seriously. I decided reasons to lose hope would not be acknowledged from here on in.

And we went on all the way to Bath Beach, jumping out of the car and posting all the way. We looked around the Shore Parkway area. We found a park on the other side of the Belt Parkway behind the Home Depot. Half it was closed off for renovations. We found a path we could drive in. The park was bordered by the water on the south. We shined the flood lights into the woods. We drove as far as we could, branches brushing against the windows, then we turned around. We posted fliers on the posts around the playing fields. In the light tomorrow we would come back and check again.  Then we drove down the Belt Parkway… then we came back around and went down to Coney Island. It makes sense that if this dog was Frances and she kept on her route and was trying to get to the beach, then Coney Island is where she would end up.

We drove down along side the boardwalk. There were many abandoned lots and closed up amusement park lots. There was an overwhelming amount of places for her to hide. The wind was whipping around the buildings, coming in from the beach. We parked the car by the boardwalk ramp and got out to look under the boardwalk… but it went on forever and ever and ever. We went on the boardwalk. It was vacant. Sad. Abandoned. I felt a wave of sadness… of helplessness wash over me. I stared out at the ocean. The beach stretched before it. It was lonely. It was freezing. I had such an empty feeling.

“We’ll never find her,” Christine said. I was feeling the same thing but I was trying to push it away.  There was just too many places for her to hide if she was here. But what if she wasn’t here? She could be anywhere…

“We will find her,” I said. When one of us is feeling down, the others have to be strong even if we aren’t sure, we act like we are. Sometimes you have to take turns being the strong one. “She is around here. In the light we will be able to see better. We are posting fliers everywhere. We will get more sightings tomorrow.”

We had also organized a search party tomorrow morning. Since it as Saturday many people were off from work and wanted to come help. Bonnie had organized the streets and areas into sections where teams of people would go to search and post fliers. We would be able to cover a lot of ground. I reminded Christine about the search party. She nodded with tears coming down her cheeks.

We turned to leave the boardwalk. The wind was whistling through the boards. My hands were numb from the cold. My heart was broken. I turned to look back at the beach one more time… it was just vast emptiness. When I got home, for the first time since Frances went missing, I cried.

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The Search For Frances Part 2

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Sadly Wednesday was not the day we would find Frances.  I spent the day searching Prospect Park with another one of my dogs, a pit bull named Lucky Charm. We searched more of the northside of the park. We went by the zoo, to the Vale of Cashmere, all along the bridal paths. There was absolutely no sign of Frances. We posted flyers along the way. The more we post, the better chance we have of a sighting being reported.  The park seemed so big. When I took Lucky home at four o’clock, I felt a little overwhelmed.  After two and half days of searching, there were parts of the park that we hadn’t even touched yet.

I met Christine, Anthony and Sonia (our morning supervisor at the shelter) in the park at seven pm that night. We hadn’t had any sign of Frances. No one had seen her. We were getting a little desperate so we took a shot in the dark and decided to set a humane trap on the hill where the cane corso was seen which is also right next to a water source. It was a likely place where she would be hang out… but there was no real evidence. Christine reasoned that even if we got the cane corso, it would be a good thing. We just prayed we didn’t get any raccoons … especially rabid ones. We had just read that there was raccoons with rabies in the park and someone had gotten bitten recently. This coupled with last nights screams from Lookout Hill,  had me a little on edge.

We met at 7th street and Prospect Park West again. Christine had brought us all face masks because it was freezing outside. So here we are. Four people with face masks on, carrying flashlights, a huge wire trap and two snag poles, walking through the pitch black darkness of Prospect Park. Its a wonder someone didn’t call the police on us.

The trap was extremely heavy and difficult to hold, esp because it was cold out. Anthony had to create a shoulder sling.  Quaker Hill was in the middle of the park and it was no easy trek.  We shone the flashlights over the vast fields along the way. A lot of people let their dogs play off leash when its dark.  There was so much hope every time one ran past us, and then disappointment when it was Frances. As we neared the woods we saw a medium sized dog sitting on a path under a shadow.

And then: “Oh my god, there she is!” Christine exclaimed. She dropped what she was carrying and ran towards the dog, “Frances!” She exclaimed. She ran to the dog… and to the dog’s owners and then realized that the dog was not Frances at all.  She apologized to the people and explained we were looking for a lost dog. We have them a flyer.  “I’m losing my damn mind,” She said as we resumed our trip into the woods with the trap.It was heartbreaking. The dog had looked like Frances from a distance and we had wanted it to be her so badly. The mind plays tricks on you sometimes, especially in the dark. I walked in silence. My heart hurt and I knew others felt the same.

Getting the trap up Quaker Hill was the hardest part. It was a pretty steep hill and we went through some thorny brush and then over two huge fallen tree trunks.  I was on the look out for the Cane Corso and raccoons with abnormal social behavior. Christine and Sonia walked to the top of the hill while Anthony set up the trap.  Sonia and I went to the Chinese restaurant before we came to buy fried chicken as bait for Frances. We also had a blanket with her scent on it given to us by Vicki, the volunteer who fostered Frances before she was adopted. Sonia and Christine had no luck searching the top of the hill and helped us wrap the trap in a tarp which would hide the trap and also keep Frances warm if we caught her.

I can’t say I wasn’t happy when we finished setting everything up so we could leave Quaker Hill.  We left a garlic powder trail down the hill. Its easy for the dogs to smell and follow the scent. Garlic is not good for dogs but since its a powder in the dirt its hard for them to eat it, but easy to smell.

We then walked around the park with the flashlights searching under bushes, in hollowed trees and in any small hiding spot that we could find. It was so cold all I could think about was if Frances had found a warm spot to sleep. A spot out of the wind. She has been outside before, I told myself, she is smart. But still it was so cold my own fingers were numb through the gloves. I couldn’t help worry about her. We searched all the water sources again since it was likely she would be hanging out around there. We went to the boathouse area and then the stream that leads to the boat house from the lower pool. Then we searched by the lull water and the lake. We posted flyer after flyer to make sure no one walking in the park would miss it. Then hours later we went back to check the trap. It was empty.

We kept going though. We walked all around the cemetery looking for holes in the fence where she could get in. We went down any dirt path we could find and fanned out in the woods with our lights. We searched by the lake and over by the ice skating rink. We searched for hours and hours. We check the trap again. Nothing.  Maybe she would go in sometime in the morning, we reasoned. She was probably sleeping now anyway…

I kept thinking about how wonderful it would be when I saw her. Would I find her hiding in some hollowed tree, all curled up? I would shine my flashlight in and there she would be. Just like that. Or maybe she would just be trotting across the field. I kept thinking about this. The moment we would find her… I was trying to will this moment into existence.  But it just wouldn’t happen.

We posted flyers all the way out of the park and to our cars… It was around midnight when we finally left.

Tomorrow, we had said. Tomorrow would be the day…

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The Search For Frances Part 1

Saturday, December 11th, 2010

Last Sunday two of our volunteers contacted me to tell me some horrible news. Frances, a once feral dog that was rescued from Far Rockaway, a dog that we had put our heart and souls into training and socializing, a dog that we had just adopted out to a seemingly perfect home had gone missing in Prospect Park.  I try not to get emotional and focus on the task at hand. I told them I would go to Prospect Park first thing in the morning and help search for her.  Even though she would be in flight drive and wouldn’t respond to people she even knew, I had helped find and rescued dogs like this before (see the posts on Sonny the beagle and Baisley the shepherd mix) .  I knew that with the help of some very talented and amazing rescuers, we could find and rescue Frances.

However its almost seven days later and still Frances has not been found. The past week has been a roller coaster ride of dramatic ups and downs.  We started the search in the park Monday morning. I met Vicki and Juliette at the park. Frances had entered the park on 7th Street and Prospect Park West. She had jumped out of the owners car after they parked and bolted into the park.  We searched the whole area.  Vicki, the volunteer who fostered Frances, brought her dog that Frances had bonded to.  I stayed in the park till ten pm that night. Bonnie, Paulina, Eddie, Christine and Frankie came at around 7pm.  We posted flyers, I searched the woods on the west side of the park.  The night was freezing cold. The wind chilling. Every sound of leaves rustling in the wind made me jump. I thought that Frances would  be hiding somewhere like she was when Christine had found her in Far Rockaway. I looked in every hollow tree, under the trailers and trucks in the maintenance yard, under every tree and bush. There was no sign of her.I was not yet worried though. I thought that she would stay in the park because she is a scaredy cat. She would find a place to hide and only venture out to look for food. She would stay in the park where its safe….

Tuesday morning I went back to the park with my dog, a pit bull named Rockaway.  We walked all over the south side of the park. We walked to the nethermead, the boat house, the long meadow, around the cemetery and Quaker Hill, all over Lookout Hill (which is creepy in the day time. I had no idea what was coming later that night…), around the Boathouse, along both sides of the lull water. Around the northside of the lake to the park of the park near the rink where they fenced off because of renovations. We ran into a beautiful giant Cane Corso on Quaker Hill who apparently has been living there for years. (More on that later) and finally at five when it was dark, we went home.  I dropped Rockaway off, went to Home Depot to get a powerful flashlight and then headed back to the park to meet Christine and her friends Anthony, Josephine and Sloane. I had my new flashlight, flyers, tape, treats and layers of clothing. It was in the 20′s.  Freezing.

We agreed to stay together on the search because the park was pitch black in some places and not safe to be alone. I was also the only one with some knowledge of the park. I had lived in Park Slope years ago. We headed across the field towards Quaker Hill where I saw the cane corso. We thought that Frances may have hooked up with him and they may be together. Being in the middle of the park at night was a different kind of darkness than being on the woods on the west side near the street. This darkness was thick, heavy, and deep. We walked around the perimeter of Quaker Hill, down a path, past a waterfall and to the other side. I showed them where I saw the Cane Corso. The area was fenced off to the public but Christine and Anthony found an opening near the cemetery and went in to see if Frances was there. Josephine, Sloane and I were at the bottom of the hill waiting and keeping watch. That is when we heard the screaming.

Loud shrill panicked screams coming from Lookout Hill.  We heard growling. It sounded like a monster was eating the girl alive. We called to Anthony and Christine who stumbled down the hill and we ran over to Lookout and called out to the wall of darkness. We heard voices. One? Two? We couldn’t tell. Disoriented screams and pleas for help. “Where are you? Are you hurt?” we called back. We shined our flashlights all over the hill. Beams of light illuminate small circles of bare branches, dead leaves on a canvass of empty blackness. We started to make our way through the brush up the hill sticking close together.

“Is that your dog?!” a girl cried out hysterically.

“What dog? Frances!? Frances!!” Christine ran up the hill calling out and didn’t hear the girl say that it was a big black dog. Frances is a medium sized brown collie mix with tannish fur.

We found the girl  under a lamp. She had a pit bull with her. She was shooken up. So was the dog. She  explained a large black dog ran out and her dog chased it into the dark and there was a confrontation. She couldn’t find her dog. She was screaming and then we came over.

“It was probably the Cane Corso,” Someone said.

“Is that the ghost dog of Prospect Park?” the girl asked.

We explained the Cane Corso was very much alive. I saw him in broad daylight. That was a real, living, breathing dog.  But it was kind of eerie that he was already becoming legend. We explained we were looking for Frances. She hadn’t seen  her. We gave her a flyer and told her to be careful.  Lookout Hill was an extremely dark place at night. Didn’t feel quite right that she was walking alone, even with a pit bull.

So what did we do after she left? Search the dark and foreboding Lookout Hill.  We stayed close together. My heart was pounding.  I thought the Cane Corso may jump out at us at anytime. The path winds up the hill. Tall weeds, bare branches, dead leaves rustling in the wind, the chill in the air.  Clouds covered the moon and stars.  It was beyond dark. It was unsettling to think Frances could be hiding in such a place. We searched the best we could. I was relieved when we came back down.

We left food by Quaker Hill where I saw the Cane Corso earlier in the day. There was a hollowed out tree there, a perfect place for a dog to hide and sleep away from the elements as she could be in the park. We put food around there. Then we started back towards the west side of the park, posting flyers alone the way.

When I got home at 11pm that night, I was still shaking. I went to bed and dreamt about ghosts at Prospect Park. None of them were Frances though. I knew she was very much alive and tomorrow, Wednesday, we would find her.

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Posted in Rescue Stories | 5 Comments »

Out of the Pits!

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Wednesday’s Story

Bobbi and the Strays got an email from a woman in the Bronx asking us to help with her female pit bull that she could no longer keep due to landlord issues. She was hiding the dog named Wednesday in her bathroom in her apartment for fear of being kicked out. Wednesday was a beautiful unaltered female pit bull. We feared what would happen to Wednesday if we didn’t step in to help. Many people want pits like her to breed and sell puppies or to fight. A lot of them end up abused, abandoned or euthanized at our city shelters.

One warm May morning, I drove up to the Bronx, dragging two friends a long with me for the ride  to pick up this pit bull named Wednesday.  We found the building without too much trouble and the girl met us outside with a large tannish/red and white pit bull that was being walked with a pocket book string- no collar, no leash.

Wednesday looked healthy. She was a good weight. She had a huge block head and I could tell she had puppies already in the past. The young girl was crying when she gave me Wednesday. She said she had no choice. Her landlord was forcing her and she didn’t want to put Wednesday on the street. She feared what would happen to her there. She said she would rather have Wednesday euthanized. There wasn’t much I could say.  Both things were horrible to me.  Wednesday hopped right into the back seat of my car. I sat in the back with her and one of my friends drove. Wednesday looked longingly out the back window as we drove away.

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Wednesday at an adoption event

When we got to the shelter we brought Wednesday inside. She looked unsure and scared.  Even though we were saving her life, I always feel sad leaving at them at the shelter.  They may feel like we are abandoning them. But then they learn that we come back everyday to take care of them and they start to feel comfortable.

After we took Wednesday to the vet and had her spayed we enrolled in obedience classes at Pawsative Dog Training.  We saw this dog had a lot of potential. She was smart and attentive, eager to please her people.  I had a feeling she could earn her Canine Good Citizenship Certificate which would help her get adopted and help dispel any notions that she was an aggressive dog just because she was a pit bull.  One of our dedicated volunteers started to bring her to beginners classes.  She passed basics with flying colors after eight weeks and then was enrolled in the CGC class.

Diane took her to classes once a week and then came to the shelter in between to practice with Wednesday.  When she passed her Canine Good Citizenship test we were all ecstatic, though not surprised.  Wednesday had such a fabulous temperament and Diane was devoted to helping Wednesday reach her potential.

Not long after she earned her CGC, Wednesday was selected to appear in a runway show at Pet Fashion Week in Manhattan. Several other Pawsative graduates were also going to be models!  Wednesday was a super star! She did a wonderful job at representing her breed and representing shelter dogs!

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Wednesday was adopted soon after by a new volunteer who fell in love with her.  She now lives in a home in Queens.  She has retired from modeling and is content to spend her days being the faithful companion to her person.

When I think about Wednesday’s story, it amazes me.  Here is this dog that was locked up inside a bathroom in the beginning of her life, being bred and having her puppies sold and then almost being homeless on the street or taken to be euthanized.  Then the next thing we know she is an AKC Canine Good Citizen and runway model!  Never underestimate the potential of a shelter dogs. Many of them are just like Wednesday, waiting for someone to recognize their potential.

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Posted in Happy Tails, How To Help, Rescue Stories, Shelter Stories | 1 Comment »

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