LA is an amazing place to adopt or foster a dog. We recently brought home Coco. A small mix of a chihuahua and a German Shepherd/American terrier, she was verified by a DNA test administered by our vet. We discovered her under Corgis on a website called rescue me.com. Clearly not a Corgi. But there was something in her eyes that definitely said ‘rescue me’.
After a long drive to Corona to meet with her, it was love at first sight. She was a little fearful and insecure as we drove home and it definitely took her a few days to acclimate to her new way of living. But we got her into training right away and thanks to the petshrink.com website she started to learn new commands almost immediately. She started to learn commands right away. Six months in and she’s still very wary of men and large dogs. Sometimes I wish they could talk so they could share their experience with us.
Last week in Palm Springs we were visiting family and we left Coco in the garden while we went to see my niece play basketball. When returned to an empty garden and Coco missing. There was a hole in the fencing, where she had clawed her way out and into the big wide open.
Panicked, we began our search. Asking neighbors if they had seen her. Yes they had, but would run away the moment they would get close to her.
As we were losing light the UPS guy said he spotted her ten minutes earlier in an partner complex about four blocks away. So we hoped in the car, drive slowly shouting her name, but was all in vain.
A few hours passed and darkness now descended, torches in hand we posted flyers all around the neighborhood. A passer-by shouted that he hoped the coyotes hadn’t gotten her. I went down by the dry river beds, the golf course and around 11pm I checked the main roads, hoping not to find her run over somewhere. My sister in law even posted a picture of Coco in the popular neighborhood app Nextdoor.
Coco is microchipped and had her tags on, so were hopeing she would eventually show up on somebody’s doorstep but worried she was hiding under some bush somewhere freezing and shaking with fear.
I spent the new few hours rather tearful, blaming myself for not checking the fencing in the garden thoroughly enough. But just as I was about to nod off I received a text from my sister-in-law. “Look who decided to show up?” she wrote, accompanied with a picture of a smiling Coco. Cue a huge sigh of relief and tears of joy filling my eyes. Someone was definitely watching over this little dog.
I ended up with a happy result but there are so many that aren’t so lucky.
The next day I fitted a tracking device to Coco’s collar and synced it to my phone via the app. This way, god forbid it happens again I can find her quicker and make sure she remains safe.
And
just quickly, a cautionary tale to end this with. I was contacted by a stranger
who had seen my ad on Craigslist and claimed he had my dog. I just needed to
verify a four digit code for him that was linked to my Paypal in order to get
Coco back. Little did this fraudster know I already had her back, so I decided
to report him to Craigslist as he was clearly trying to scam me. So be careful
out there when posting, because these latest hackers are sophisticated
criminals and will try anything to steal from you. But not this guy: as the old
proverb goes “Do not respond to a barking dog.”
Woof
woof!
Craig
