Annie is an American Dingo, sometimes called a Carolina Dog, living with me on my sailboat in North Carolina. The Carolina Dog isn’t a domesticated breed but rather a wild pariah breed that runs free from the Savannah River basin in Georgia to the lower regions of coastal South Carolina, half dog, half wolf, half coyote, half who knows what. Anyway, Annie is with me twenty four hours a day aboard my boat in a local marina.
Learn more about the Carolina Dog discovered by Dr. I.Lehr Brisbin – LINK.
Recently I had to take a business trip to Houston, Texas for a week and couldn’t take Annie along. So a friend who speaks English but whose first language is French lives nearby and he offered to take Annie in his apartment until I returned. I was a little skeptical about leaving her there because with her wild nature she can be a bit hard to handle at times. However, my friend assured me he could take care of her without any problems. In fact, he bragged about it. He told me that when I returned he would have her so well trained I wouldn’t recognize her. He also told me he would teach her commands in both English and French. So, I took a chance.
Everything went well for five days but on the morning of the sixth day I got a panic phone call. “Hal, I’m really sorry but Annie ran away last night. I drove all around, looked everywhere and she is nowhere to be found.” I asked what happened and he said, “I came home from the market with my arms full of groceries and as soon as I opened the door she bolted, out the door, down the steps, through the parking lot, into the street and gone.” I told him that she had a chip implanted and I would call ‘Home Again’ and see if she could be located.
When I called and gave Annie’s registration number I was told that she had already been located on the beach late the previous evening and was in the animal shelter ten miles south of the apartment! I called the shelter and spoke to the dog catcher who captured her and he told me she was running on the beach along the edge of the surf heading south. There was a fine of $125 but since I was out of town, they would reduce it to $60. I called my buddy and told him she was in dog jail ten miles south and he would have to go down and bail her out. She didn’t need a lawyer since she had already pleaded guilty, but bail would be $60.
In a few hours, she was back at the apartment and the next day I flew back from Texas, picked her up and returned to the boat. I got to thinking about it and reasoned that after five days she had enough of that apartment and French was just too damn hard for her to learn. So she decided she was going back home to the boat. She headed right to the water didn’t see any boats so headed south thinking, “I know those boats got to be along here somewhere.” She got ten miles down the beach and that’s where she ran afoul of the authorities.
Without ‘Home Again’ the outcome may not have been so good and for certain would not have been so quick. Good job ‘Home Again’. Annie and I are both grateful for your excellent service.
So long, good luck and have a nice day!
Long Story Short: A Collection of Stories by Hal Gunardson 