Journeys With GG

Rooting for Love

Ella has been home for more than a week now.  It's hard to believe that it was four weeks ago today that she went on her 18-day adventure.  It's a little more than half the time I spent on the camino in Spain three years ago.  On my right foot I have a tattoo that marks that time.  On her right paw is a patch that I don't ever think will grow hair back.  I blogged about my whole adventure -and hers from my perspective.  Now that she's home I like to imagine all the adventures she might have had.

When Ella was gone, my house was really quiet.  No dog softly snoring.  No dog barking at the mailman.  No dog following me around the house.  The object of my daily love and affection - as canine as she might be - was missing.

I could have given up on finding her.  I think many people do.  But through the whole ordeal I knew I had to listen to the love in my heart, and not to the fear.  Both were there for sure, but I made a choice to follow love.

This may sound corny to some, but I think the internal battle that leads one to either follow love or to follow fear, is a very real one.  This, being just one of the lessons I learned in that 18 days, helped me shed light on so many other things that I hadn't been able to understand.  Some I still don't.  But there's something there in that fear vs. love argument....

Not only during the time Ella was missing but since she's come back, I'm sorry to say that I've learned that several of my friends have been going through their own hard times.  If it weren't for me sharing as much as I did about the Ella ordeal, I don't know if they would have felt they could share with me and others.  I'm thankful that they have.  And in all of their situationsI'm rooting for them to win, rooting for love to win, and rooting for their happy endings.  Because all of those things CAN happen.

Finding Ella - 8/15/2009

The day started the same, with me getting up at 6:00 a.m. to drive over to Alameda and check the humane traps and walk around looking for Ella.

At around 8:00 a.m. I went back home to take a shower and get ready to get more fliers made, and then go meet my friend Janie at McKinley Park to put up more signs.  Janie and I met up around 10, re-canvassed the area, and ran into a girl named Desiree, who I had only met over the phone and email.  She has a little golden Cockapoo and feeling my pain, has been on the lookout for Ella.

At noon I met up with my friend Astrid and her husband Manuel, who were going to re-canvass Park Street for me.  We chatted for a while, then I went to the Alameda shelter to check on black lab, the Oakland shelter to check for Ella, ran a few errands and then went home to rest a bit before going out again.

At around 3:00 in the afternoon I got a call from a man who had just seen my flier, and realized that Ella was the dog that tried to come into his house the night before as he was cooking dinner, and had left the door to the backyard open.  He shooed her away, and then saw her hanging out in the backyard later that night when he took out the trash.  He gave me his address (which was on Pacific, between Walnut and Oak) and promised to cook dinner with the door open again in case she came back.

While another close call, it was a better sign.  To me it meant Ella was getting tired of life on her own, and for whatever reason, was ready to trust a stranger for some help. 

I went to my sister's house to pick up her dog Cole.  She went to Tahoe and I've been using Cole as a "magnet" dog.  Cole is Ella's first playmate in her life with me and she has known him since she was 10 weeks old. 

I was especially tired as we got in the car last night.  My plan was to go straight to the house she was last seen and start calling for her.  I looked at Cole and said, "We're going to find Ella tonight and bring her home, right?"  He looked at me and wagged his tail when he heard her name. 

When I got to Alameda I went straight to Pacific.  As we approached the block Ella was last seen on, Cole started to act up and made a lot of noise.  "Is this a good sign?" I wondered.  He could barely wait to get out of the car.

We started walking down Pacific towards Park, slowly, taking time to call deeply into each backyard, one by one.  Two doors down from the sighting, I called.  I heard a very familiar bark, but there have been a lot of those.  I called again, and it seemed like the dog I heard was in a house three doors down from the sighting.  I looked up at the window, and out of the corner of my eye to the left, I saw her run out of the backyard.  Ella.

She stopped about 15 feet away from us, dead in her tracks.  We just looked at each other for a minute and I said, "Ella, it's mama and Cole!"  Cole is what really did it.  She ran to him right away, then she looked up and me and jumped up on me.  I got her leash on her as fast as I could and gave her a huge hug.

Now, this is where the sobbing should have started, right?  But I was more stunned than everything else.  After spending at least four hours a day looking for her for the past 18 days, here it was, a simple, five minute search and BAM - there she was. 

I had to spread the word.  I called Nicol first, my friend whose house she ran from, just two blocks away.  I got her voice mail, which I expected.  Nicol is a wedding planner, and I thought she was probably working, but I walked the dog over to her house, just in case.

Called my sister - voice mail.  Called my parents - voice mail.  Called Dylan - voice mail.  then I just shot a picture of her with my phone and posted it to facebook.  "Look what I just found!" the caption proclaimed.

Theresa Castro, my Alameda Guardian Angel who filled her work days keeping an eye out for Ella everywhere she went, was the first person I got live.  Her family cheering in the background, and the two of us crying on the phone.  Many more calls took place, including one to Diana Barrett, the Animal Control officer I've been working with, but who has been on vacation for the past week.  When she gets back on Tuesday, I hope my voice mail is a happy "welcome back" for her.

Eventually, the word got out, I started getting calls back, comments back.  Today I got a call back from Dave, the Oakland Tribune reporter.  He wants to meet Ella on Tuesday and do a follow up story.  I called everyone else in my phone today who I've never met, but who have called to check on Ella.  The call made their day.  There's one more person I need to get a hold of.  She's an "unknown caller" on my phone, and I wrote her number down on one of the numerous slips of paper that have grown out of control the pas few weeks.  Dovey, I will try to call you soon.

Ella was filthy.  Ella is ultra hairy, but feels bony under it.  Ella has a really nasty sore paw and is wearing the cone of shame to keep her from it.  Ella was really, really thirsty, very hungry, and exceptionally tired (she's sleeping again now). We have an appointment at the vet first thing tomorrow morning.  I'll probably make an appointment for them to groom her later this week.

I learned and re-learned a lot of things over the past few weeks, which I will share in due time.  But right now, I just can't stop looking at my dog, and listening to her make her familiar puppy noises while she dreams. 

Thank you again, so much everyone.  It's back to life, back to reality....and I can hardly wait!

Black Dog Runs at Night (but I caught him)

That's either the title and/or key spoken verse from a song off of the Twin Peaks TV show sound track.  But last night, I met a black dog that runs a night.

I was out looking for Ella in the usual territory she's been spotted.  Walking up Buena Vista from McKinley park, I saw a dog doing his business.  I thought I saw a person with him at first, but as I got closer I saw that he was all alone.  It looked like he had a collar at one point, but didn't have one now.

He barked at me at first, and his bark was pretty big and scared me a bit.  He tried to run from me, but I called him and he came closer, but not too close.  I attribute it to the fact I smelled like wet dog food, as I'd just got done baiting one of the humane traps. 

I called the Alameda PD to see if they could help, as I knew Animal Control doesn't work during the nights (which, kind of doesn't make sense if the strays feel safer coming out at night, but that's another issue).  I was told, "yeah, we've tried to catch that dog a few times but he runs from us."  Well, great.

Not wanting to lose the dog's interest, I took Ella's favorite squeaky ball out of my bag and squeaked it.  He liked that.  At that point I decided I was close enough to the shelter to walk there with him, off leash, because he didn't seem to want to get that close.  At one point I got him to sit, using the vocal command with the same hand signal I learned with Ella in puppy training.  He responded, so I figured whoever he belongs to took him to puppy training class at some point.

So, we walked, with him sniffing a lot of stuff along the way.  With me squeaking the ball and running at times to get him to chase me, like it was a game, re-assuring him with a lot of "good boy"'s along the way.

We got to the shelter.  The dogs inside were barking up a storm and he seemed excited and happy by that.  All the night drop boxes were locked, so I called Alameda PD again, telling them where I was and they sent an officer over.

While we were waiting, I sat down and so did he.  He was letting me pet him, nuffling my hand, and let me slip Ella's leash around his neck. 

The officer got there and the dog didn't like him one bit, started barking, etc.  But, we got a box open, I emptied the water bottle that was there into the bowl, sacrificed my spoon still covered with some dog food into the box, and with a gentle shove he was in the box, safe and off the street.  I filled out a drop form, and hope to get a call shortly from them when they open today.  If they don't, I'll call - they know me well there by now!

I really hope he belongs to someone theis looking for him.  I doubt he's chipped, because he isn't neutered and usually the chipping happens when they go in for the fixing.  Yeah, the thought has crossed my mind that maybe I should keep this dog.  However, even if his owner doesn't claim him, Labs are sought after dogs for adoption in the Bay Area.  The dogs that seem hardest to place, and that there are the most of, are Pitt Bulls and Chihuahuas.

So, while I'm sad I haven't caught Ella yet, I've had two great days in a row - Thursday was the first sighting of her in more than a week, and yesterday I helped a dog in the way I hope she will soon be helped. :-)