Bobbi and the Strays

We sometimes get calls or emails about a dog running loose in the neighborhood or on a highway.  We don’t have a team of professionals who go out to retrieve these animals, but we do have some very dedicated volunteers who will do their best to try and get the animal and bring him or her to safety.

When we got an email from a very nice woman named Lauren telling us of a beagle living in a lot in Hollis for two years we knew we had to do something. Lauren had been trying to get the dog herself but he is very tricky. He often escapes through holes in fences and disappears into other abondened junk filled lots or neighbors’ yards. After days of knocking on peoples doors to ask for access to their yards and then almost getting hit by a car on Jamaica Ave, she knew she needed help.

Going after dogs running loose on the street is one of my least favorite things. It can be extremely stressful especially when its near a busy street such as Jamaica Ave. I won’t chase a dog that is in flight mode. If I cannot corner him or quarantine him in  a yard when he is like this, I think its best to get a trap. But I like to see the animal for myself. Sometimes you do get lucky.

So one rainy cold Sunday morning I drove to the intersection she spoke of : Jamaica and Woodhull in Hollis. One of my staff workers, Veronica and one of our volunteers, Christine, came with me. We were armed with leash, treats, canned food etc

We managed to reach the destination without getting lost, thankfully. We parked the car and went to the corner and stopped. There was a car lot on the corner across the street and then what looked like a junk lot next to that. There was also a parking lot behind a building on the other corner. Hmmmm….

We started at the car lot which was open. I went inside and asked the man if he knew of a stray beagle that had been living there for two years. He said he hadn’t seen such a dog and he has been working there a long time. Okay… so its not the car lot. We went to the lot behind the building but didn’t really see any food or any empty dishes… nothing to indicate a dog was living there and being fed for two years. Strange.

Then we went to the lot next to the car lot. It was gated shut and locked but we could see clearly through the bars. We didn;t see a dog but we saw an empty bag of Pedigree food.

“This must be it,” we said. We tried our best to find a way in but there was a cement wall around two sides and the back bordered peoples yards. We walked all around the block to see if we could get in the other way or just to see if we saw any indication of a dog but we had no luck.  We went into some stores nearby to see if anyone had seen the dog recently but no one knew about a stray beagle.  So we left some canned food in a bowl under the gate and agreed to come back during the week when the lot was open.

During the week, Christine and Veronica were working so Iwent back twice by myself. Both times the lot was closed and I didn’t see any beagle. The bowl of food was gone though.

Then on a Saturday Christine went back while I was at an adoption event and said the lot was closed but they saw the beagle locked up in a cage with a roof over it. The beagle was barking and jumping up and down. Strange. Someone had to be able to get close to this dog to be able to put it in a cage. It didn’t sound like the skittish stray the woman had described. Christine called the number on a truck in the lot and left a message inquiring about the beagle.

On Tuesday morning I went back again and saw the same thing. The beagle was in a cage with a roof over its head and had food and water. Under NYS law, this is legal. Not the kind of environment we would adopt our dogs out to, but the person keeping this beagle wasn’t doing anything wrong in the eyes of the law. Sighing, I realized there wasn’t much I could do for this beagle. I called Lauren to tell her the situation.

“Cage?” She said. “That’s impossible. I saw him running loose this morning by the gate and there was no cage in the lot.”

“I am looking at him right now,” I said.

“Okay, I coming out now. I work nearby.”

I waited on the corner till my phone rang again.

“I am here, “she said. “But I don’t see you.”

“I am on the corner in front of the car lot,” I said.

“Of Woodhull and Jamaica?”

“Yes,” I said. “Are you here?”

“I am standing in front of the lot,” She answered. I looked around. There was no one standing around talking on their cell phones. Was I in the right place? I checked the street signs. Sure enough I was standing on Jamaica and Woodhull.

“Umm, I don’t see you. Are you sure its on Woodhull Ave and Jamaica Ave?”

“I am certain. Its one block from 197th,” She said.

“197th? I am one block from 188th. Are there two intersections where Woodhulll meets Jamaica?”

“Maybe,” she said. 

Feeling like I was n the twilight zone I ran back to my car and drove towards 197th and sure enough there was another intersection where Woodhull meets Jamaica and there was a car lot with a woman standing there waiting for me.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the strangeness. Two intersections where Woodhull meets Jamaica, both with car lots with beagles in them. What are the odds?

Only this beagle was in a lot more danger. He didn’t belong to anyone and he was running free.  She showed me where he was living. Someone had built a dog house up on the hill.  There was trash and old clothing strewn about and some dirty dishes. One with frozen water.  Someone had opened a bag of dry dog food and left it for him.

“He won’t let anyone get close to him. He runs through the holes in the fences and disappears into people’s yards. Its hard to keep up with him,” she said.

There were more than a dozen places he could slip out of the lot which we couldn’t fit through. I see what she meant about it being difficult to corner him. They had been feeding him over a year and he still didn’t trust them.  I walked the edge of the lot looking for all the escape routes.  He was definitely nowhere to be found  now.

“He’s probably watching us right now,” Lauren said.

“I think the best thing would be to get a humane trap. If he still doesn’t trust you after a year, he probably won’t trust us.”

I told her that I would try and find someone willing to lend us a trap and get back to her asap. After she left I walked around the lot again and then around the block looking for signs of him.

How sad that the dog had lived out here alone all this time. It was freezing today and my fingers were numb. I could only imagine how cold he was at night.  It made me feel terrible that he suffered so much. It kep me up all night.

I sent out an email to some contacts hoping they knew someone who would lend me their trap.  One person offered to go out and look for the dog but then I never heard back. Finally a week later, the email got to Mary from Little Shelter who generously offered to let me use her trap. A man named Eddie was currently holding the trap and he offered to meet me at the lot to help me set it up and get the dog.

The next day I drove out to Hollis at noon.  As soon as I parked the car, I saw the beagle. He was sitting calmly at the gate of the lot watching the people walk by.   He was such a beautiful dog! I calmly went over to the lot sat down and opened a can of food. He came over to me, about four feet away sniffing curiously.

I poured water into another bowl and then waited. He sat down and stared at me. Not until I moved away did he come over and drink water and taste the food.  I kept my eye on him while I waited for Eddie.  He moved around the lot. He took a nap on this old dirty sweatshirt that was lying on the lot. He curled up in a ball trying to keep warm. It was heartbreaking.  At one point he disappeared through a hole in the fence and then came back moments before Eddie pulled up.

Eddie tried to get the beagle without the trap at first. The beagle was coming very close to us but not close enough to touch. He was just walk the other way if we got any closer and then he slipped through a different hole in the fence and disappeared. We definitely needed the trap.

While Eddie set up the trap, I went to the bodega to buy garlic powder.  It has a strong smell that attracts dogs. Garlic isn’t good for dogs but they can’t eat the powder off the dirt but they will often follow the garlic powder trail to the trap. I then went to KFC and got some greasy delicious smelling chicken strips to put on the trap.

Eddie finished setting up the trap and then we walked around the block to see if we could find him in someone’s yard. Perhaps we could get him to go back into the lot and pick up the garlic trail.

The people in the neighborhood were extremely friendly and nice about letting us go in their yards to look for the dog. Some of them had said they see the dog from time to time but he never comes close.  In one yard we found an old unused shed with the door broken off.  It looked like a good place for him to get out of the elements at night.  But he wasn’t there at the time.

In the next yard, the brush was all overgrown and the sticks crunched and broke beneathe our shoes. We heard a simillar sound over by the fence where the beagle slipped through and we stopped.

Silence.

We took another step and heard the same noise. We stopped. The noise stopped. Then we heard a rustle through te branches. When Eddie got close enough to the fence he saw the beagle back in the lot.

We went back around to the lot to watch and see if he would go in the trap. When we got back though he was lying down napping in front of one of the vans.  When Eddie approached the beagle escaped through another hole in the fence into a junk yard type lot then went through another fence into someone else’s yard. I saw him walk over to a big white shed and disappear. Eddie went around the block again to see if he could get into the yard through the other side. I waited incase the beagle decided to come back.

Three minutes later Eddie called and said the beagle came out and crossed the street and to come around the block to help him get the dog. The beagle was running in and out of yards.

When I came around the corner I saw Eddie walking slolwy down the street looking into peoples yards for the dog. The beagle was sitting so close to the house and so still I almost mistook him for a statue.  The good news was that the yard he was in was completey fenced in. Eddie went and closed the gate behind him while I waited outside where I had a view of the whole yard.

He got very close to the dog but suddenly the beagle darted through a hole in the fence we didn’t see but he was only in the next fenced in yard. We walked down the sidewalk following him. Then he jumped a four foot fence into the next yard, also fenced in. That is when he ran to the back of the yard and behind a fence. Eddie went in after him and again I waited where I had a view in case he escaped.

“Go around to the other street!” Eddie called. He jumped into the yard in back of this house!

I sprinted around the block and arrived breathless at the house that was in back of the one I last saw the beagle in. The beagle was in the yard and coming towards the gate. When he saw me, he put the brakes on and ran back but he ran into Eddie. The beagle then ran to the back corner and attempted to scale a five foot fence to escape but he was too slow and Eddie grabbed the beagle.  The dog had no collar on so it was difficult for Eddie to him. The beagle was trying desperately to escape. I ran into the yard with my leash as Eddie held the beagle to the groud. I could see the beagle was terrified. I slipped the leash over his head.  Then Eddie handed me a choke collar and another leash and we put that one on too for safety.

I didnt know whether to laugh to cry. We finally got him! But he looked so scared. Petrified that my heart broke.

“You’re safe, nothing is going to happen to you,” I said.  Eddie gently pet the dog but the beagle remained frozen in fear. We tried to walk him back to where our cars where, but the beagle became a tree and wouldn’t move.

We called Lauren and she drove around with her car to bring us a crate. The beagle tried to escape and pull out of his leash twice but Eddie somehow managed to get him into the crate.  Then I drove my car around and we loaded the crate into the back seat.

The poor dog was so scared, he didn’t move or make a sound. I gave him some chicken but he was too afraid to even acknowledge it.

My heart was beating so fast still. I couldn’t believe Eddie had gotten the dog. He had jumped two fences and ran through several people’s yards to end up in the yard where we got the dog.  He was covered in dirt and looked tired but he was happy that he was able to get the dog.

We brought the beagle back to our Vetport shelter. Denise, who works there at nights met us at the door. She set up a cage for the dog with a comfy bed and food and water. The beagle came out of the carrier and went right in and sat down on his bed. He was still scared but he let us pet him and scan him for a microchip. There was no chip.  He was neutered though, so at one point, he was someone’s dog.

Lauren had been calling the dog Sonny so that is the name we will keep for him. I know it will take him a few days to settle in and for him to trust us and be comfortable but he seems like a really nice (and really smart!) dog. 

I would love to see Sonny in a foster home as soon as possible. After living in a lot and in people’s back yards for two years, I don’t want to see him stressed in a cage. He needs a warm loving home to relax in. A home where he will always be safe, a place where he will never have to run and hide or spend a night out in the freezing cold again.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Eddie for all his efforts in getting Sonny to safety and to Mary from Little Shelter who generously loaned us her trap. Also to Lauren for taking the initiative to start the rescue process and all the volunteers who helped feed and try to rescue Sonny including but not limited to Veronica, Audrey, Christine & Frankie and Bill & Rose. Thank you so much!  I know there are so many of you who cared deeply about Sonny’s well being.  Thank you.

Now all Sonny needs is a home! If you are interested in fostering or adopting Sonny please contact Adopt@bobbicares.org

Thank you!