Jesse, yellow lab

GOING TO THE DOGS: ‘Tail’ to tell after being lost.
By Jerry Elsden, GateHouse News Service
Posted Oct 27, 2009 @ 08:00 AM

Lewkowski, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, left, found Jessie, the 12-year-old yellow Lab, right, 16 days after she became lost in Wompatuck State Park on Oct. 14.

Hingham — What’s better than a miracle, long after you’ve given up hope finding a lost dog?

On Wednesday, Oct. 14, we found Jessie, a 12-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, who has cataracts and mast cell cancer tumors on her body.

Jessie was found alive 16 days after she had vanished east of the parking lot opposite the Wompatuck State Park Visitors Center on Monday, Sept 28, around 3:15 p.m., near the N2 side trail.

I’ve been Jessie’s dog walker since 2003. So, I was looking for her body when I took four Labs and a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Lewkowski (who I walk only on Mondays and Wednesdays) into Wompatuck on the same trail I had last seen Jessie. I remember thinking that her beautiful body would be more visible as winter approached. The “lost dog” posters that I had taped everywhere were a sad reminder of the horrific day she disappeared. I was no longer calling out for “Jessie.”

I took the dogs on the paved road past the waterfall and toward Triphammer Pond, onto the old gravel railroad bed (from when Wompatuck was the Naval Ammunition Annex). On that trail Accord Brook runs swiftly through a culvert on its way to the pond. Over the last two weeks I’d walked that trail several times looking for Jessie, as did many others, calling her name, and whistling.

Suddenly, the Ridgeback hung back, sniffing the ground and air. She barked as if to say, “Pay attention here.” This dog has never barked with me when I walk her. Something was up.

Lewkowski rushed down the 45-degree sloped underbrush area and I followed, hanging on to Sonny’s leash. Leila and Tango barked. I saw a yellow Lab body, knew it was Jessie, and my heart leaped. Was she dead, or barely alive?

Jessie raised her head, and tried to recognize me, but couldn’t, her old eyes glazed. The Labs licked her face. She could not stand up. I thought her leg was broken, but a nasty long briar stem had twisted around her belly. I wished I had my jackknife, but instead broke the stem with my prosthetic right foot. She didn’t even whimper. I clipped a leash on her collar but it slipped off, she had lost so much weight. I think I grabbed the back of her neck, and got Jessie up the slope onto the trail. I was so overjoyed I thought I was dreaming. That dog actually walked back to the car, although I was prepared to call the park ranger to open the gate and get her. The other dogs pranced around, knowing she was OK, especially Lewkowski. Jessie drank lots of water in my car, and at my house she ate some kibble. God only knows what she ate for 16 days. The rainfall kept her from dehydration, which is worse than hunger for any creature. I wanted to grill her a steak, but knew her tummy had to have what the vet recommended.

After contacting Jessie’s pet parents by cell phone, I whisked her off to Roberts Animal Hospital in Hanover for what the vet called “a head to toe” check-up. Her pet parent’s daughter met us there. Jessie weighed 60 pounds, down from 76 pounds in June. That’s a pound for each day she was lost. Other than some scrapes and scratches, and a few ticks, the old girl was stable and could go home, after the tech gave her some subcutaneous fluids and a de-wormer. We took home special canned food and medicated shampoo. I cherished that reunion of Jessie’s to her home. She was safe, warm, fed and happy. The next day she went to Doggie Style Salon in Quincy, where Ryan Lamb, of Hingham, removed 12 more ticks and gave her a professional grooming. “She earned it,” said Lamb, whose family has been in the insurance business in town since 1952.

Sept 28 was a beautiful early fall day, the sun was drying up the rain from the day before. I took the dogs to Wompatuck because the tide was low at Bare Cove Park, which was business as usual. Jessie hung back from me and the dog pack, which she often does, and I called to her to catch up. She did, but she had a crazy look on her face. My black Lab Duchess had picked up an apple that someone had thrown on to the trail, and she was playing with it. I thought it cute, looked back for Jessie about 15 seconds later, and she was gone. I turned around and called Jessie’s name, went to the parking lot, walked other trails, yelled her name until dark (6:30 p.m.) I called her pet parent. By this time I had corralled the other dogs into the car with water and biscuits. I notified Hingham Police. It was around 60 degrees.

The next morning I was in the park with cooked bacon, searching for Jessie, for about five hours, near the N2 trail. I consulted a dog physic who told me she was alive but west of where I last saw her. With Jessie’s pet parent and other volunteers, we searched that area, near Woodpecker Pond, to no avail. The daytime temperatures were around 60 degrees and nighttime temps were around 45 degrees, in Jessie’s favor.

A friend owns a bloodhound, so I took Jessie’s blanket (so painful to gather) to have the hound sniff if and off she went. But bloodhounds must be trained to find people or dogs for it to work. My daughter helped with the search. I banged a stainless dog dish with a spoon as I walked everywhere on day three. The temps remained warm, giving us hope. We told everyone about Jessie, to look for her. The Wompatuck Park Rangers were really helpful, and sympathetic.

Sept 30 and Oct 1 were search days, but we were getting discouraged. Fellow dog walkers from Bare Cove Park came in to look for Jessie. I printed posters and dropped them at houses all along Lazell Street. I met some nice people.

Saturday, Oct 3 it rained all day. I was losing hope, as did Jessie’s pet parents. A woman called me about a yellow Lab seen near the High School. I printed more posters and taped them all over Hingham Center. I offered a $100 reward.

As the days dragged on with no sign of Jessie, we all assumed she had died. The notion set in that maybe her mast cell cancer had spread and she was feeling awful and wandered off to die. People told me to stop beating myself up, which fell on deaf ears. I took the dogs to Bare Cove Park, could not deal with Wompatuck. Her pet parents took down Jessie’s crate.

But in the back of my mind stuck the words of a woman who walks her Bassett Hound at Bare Cove every day. Her name, ironically, is Jessie and she said “dogs have been lost for weeks in that park, and coyotes are not really a problem.”

The lesson here of course is that Jessie should be leashed always, which I do in parking lots and on her street to the car.

Jessie, you have a new lease on life, thanks to your buddy Lewkowski. And I think, the Dog God.

Jerry Elsden is a below-the-knee amputee who was involved in a serious automobile-pedestrian accident. She is a dog walker, freelance writer and former editor of The Hingham Journal. The names of the dogs in this column have been changed to protect the identities of their owners.

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/hingham/news/lifestyle/columnists/x665149614/GOING-TO-THE-DOGS-Tail-to-tell-after-being-lost