Bobbi and the Strays

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.