Arctic Ghost Has Left The Building

I feel a three dog night chill under my skin as I bid "Adieu" to my most recent stray guest.

Where I live, I see a lot of stray dogs, some living off the rural streets while others are understimulated puppies running away for some heated adventures. The 55mph road that runs across my neighborhood is why I have invited so many strays into my back yard, feeding and blanketing them until Animal Control comes to collect. I have called on their services often over the past 4 years, even calling them for Col. Tishi Meizer before I adopted her off the street as my own pack diva. The Original.

And Col. Tishi Mei-Mei has seen these strays come and go. I have never had difficulty turning our guests over to the pound. I support their work by registering my pack members and spaying and neutering. But today, my heart wrenched as I said good-bye and good luck to Arctic Ghost, a female white husky puppy with igloo eyes.

Arctic Ghost came around my property yesterday. I first was notified of her presence by my pack as they barked and scratched at the front door and then raced to the back door where they can access the backyard from a tear in the screen compliments of The Colonel. My pack ran to the back gate and their barking stopped as they smelled the stray white dog with the bushy bushy tail on the other side. I watched the stray wander around the side dirt road for a few minutes, then I went back to doing the dishes.

My pack ran frantically back inside the house to the front door which was closed and they started barking and scratching at the front door. I shuushed them back and when I went outside in the front, the stray husky was smelling around my truck then went to my nextdoor neighbors' then made her way across the 55mph street avoiding honking, braking diesel trucks and black H3s. Still, I went back to my chores. Oftentimes, neighborhood dogs just go out for the day and return home before their people get home and realize otherwise.

Tishi and Bella Dora have gotten out their fair share of escapes and have always come home when I start shaking their walking collars and lead... sometimes bringing with them other wanderlusting canines. When I have recognized them from my walks, I have returned escaped dogs to their homes. When strays have collars, I call and coordinate pick-up. When dogs have no ID and look dirty, injured and/or hungry, I take them in, usually overnight, and notify Animal Control.

Arctic Ghost was dirty, hungry and looked like easy-pickings for unneutered studs, dominant bitches and inattentive dog-on-the-street-hit-n-running speeders. I put her in my locked back yard and called the pound for a pick-up. They said they will come out that afternoon which was good because with the husky puppy in heat, she was spotting and getting my pack all riled up, particularly Tishi Meizer. I had to keep them separate or one of them was going to get hurt. As much as I love Tishi, she tends to get herself into fights with dogs who kick her ass. A purebred husky pup in heat under my watch was not going to learn how to be insecure by my Lil Babette.

While I was in the backyard keeping the dogs calm and picking up their dogpiles, I noticed Tishi go to the door in attention. I figured it was Animal Control coming to pick-up Arctic Ghost. I went inside and when I got to the front door, I saw an official notice stating that the officer had been by a half hour ago and will return tomorrow for the stray. For some reason and predictably, I freaked out!

I called Animal Control back all angry and told them to cancel my call for pick-up as I have let the stray go. I was pissed that we were simply in the backyard and all the officer had to do was say "hello" or something to get my attention over the fence. It would have been so easy for them to do their job -- but instead, the officer wrote an earlier time on the notice than when she had actually come, and just took off! By the time I saw the notice and called Animal Control back, the officer had gone offshift. I was livid with the call center rep who responded when I told her I let the stray go with, "Why did you do that?" I yelled at her on my cf, "I did my job so you can do your job and then instead of doing her job, the officer just left for the day?!?!?!"

I think I smashed the cf on my desk before disconnecting -- I can still hang-up on someone in the digital age ;-p thankfully, blackberries are constructed sturdily. Still can make calls despite my overreacting.

Yes, I kicked the stray out of my backyard. I told her, "Go! Git!!"

For the next hour my dogs who were inside the house kept up their barking and running from the backyard to the front door. I was seething with bad attitude. Angry at all the commotion, I yelled at my pack to get back and then went outside the front. There, sitting under my truck bed like a black stray dog did four years ago, was Arctic Ghost. She wagged her magnificent tail and shot me a "Oh, c'mon" twinkle in her stare.

Of course, I took her back to the safety and comfort of my backyard. This time, I prepared dinner for all of the doggies: roast beef and brown rice with carrots. I serve myself a small plate before adding their doggy supplements and portioning out. I fed my pack inside my house first, then gave a bowl to Arctic Ghost in the back yard. She loved it and ate it all up. She made a friend for life that day! A friend that cooks for her!

I called Animal Control again and the patient call center rep took my information for the third time and spent a good minute apologizing for the inconvenience and thanking me for calling her back, also accepting my apologies for the way I took out my frustrations on her.

The thing is, this is what I do. I commit without discussion to helping others and doing what is required of the situation -- not what I need or even what is best for my loved ones, just, simply, what is required of the situation. Objectively. The good feelings I get from acting on my sense of altruism is addictive! And true to addictive personalities, the first obstacle that I hit or the first resistance I sense, however slight, I lose my marbles and behave embarrassingly.

Fortunately for me, Arctic Ghost would not allow me to pass up the opportunity to do good by her. She kept giving me another chance to do what was just. Right. When I took her back the second time, we looked eye to eye on the same level and I saw her relief. At the time, I figured it was because she was tired from running around on the streets, it was getting dark and colder now and she wanted a hot meal and a warm place to spend the night.

When my man returned home after dark, he informed me that one of our friends' dog was stabbed to death earlier in the afternoon. Around the same time I was going mental with Arctic Ghost, a post-partum depressed cokehead was stabbing a purebred boxer to death with a kitchen knife as my friend sustained slash wounds trying to keep his babymama off his puppy.

Imagine seeing the crime scene and then seeing the eyes of Arctic Ghost. My man did just that. And thank god I was able to recapitulate before he came home so that we could share a feeling of active participation. You see, two weeks ago, both my man and I asked our friend if he would like us to take his boxer for a while, at least until things worked out between him and his babymama. At the time, he turned us down because the boxer was the one energy that was pure love in their home -- attentive to the little children and to our friend. When my man visited yesterday just hours after the police hauled away the dog-killer for two years in prison (yes, two years -- i am psycho-crying again), our friend said to him sadly, "Maybe you shudda taken him for a bit."

As much good as I say I do with my experiences, I did not do good by our friend and his boxer. I did not do good with Arctic Ghost. But she gave me a chance to ressurect myself. Yes, she did.

I enjoyed my evening with my pack and with our guest. this morning when Animal Control returned to collect her, I had Arctic Ghost tethered in the front yard so she would not be missed again. With her gone, I finally bawled and wrote to my man:

"i am bawling my eyes out... i really got attached to her, to her lesson for me and to her stunning eyes. if only tishi weren't so insecure, it would have been great to spend more time with her, but they took her just now.

"i know it is best for everyone -- most of all her owners who i am sure are going crazy not knowing where she is. she looked like she knew her way home, but being a puppy on the loose in heat, i didnt think she would make it home before she got herself into trouble. lots of other dogs walking around may want to take her out or stud her, if a passing car doesn't inattentively run her over first.

"i felt her resist going into the pound truck -- i guess she felt the energy from the crates. i am just telling myself that it was the best thing to do. i appreciate you telling me about how you feel about the pound and still going with my actions of giving her care over to them. if it's okay with you, when we get our first check in a couple of weeks, can we call the pound to see if anyone has picked her up and if not, maybe we can go get her back? i am not asking for an answer now, we will feel for it when the time comes. i just wanted to share how much my experience with her energy means to me."