DESTINY'S CHILD
Lewis' Fate
In August 2007, faithful Lewis roused his family to the presence of thieves on their cattle ranch. When they went outside to confront the trespassers, they saw these horrible men run Lewis over with their truck in their haste to escape. Lewis died instantly, protecting his family and ranch to the last.
RIP Lewis. We miss you buddy.
Dog after dog after dog after dog. In they come, we comfort them, we fix them, we love them and we send them on their way. Somehow it never gets old, never gets boring, never becomes the same old same old. Rescue is always exhilerating, and heartbreaking, happy and sad, incredibly tough and always so rewarding. Every dog has a story.
But some dogs have no story ... until they come to us. And then their stories become something amazing, breathtaking, awe inspiring. They become these furry little packages of fate and destiny in a living, breathing package of amazing.
Our volunteers are what make TDBCR tick tick tick. Without their dedication the hundreds of dogs that have come through our doors might still be out shivering in the cold, crying to the heaven, stuck on their chains or languishing in shelters alone and afraid. So it's no surprise that Lewis' chain of fate started with the work of one volunteer.
One day Melanie said to me "Please please please, can we help this dog. He's in a shelter in Washington, and he's not going to last. Please can we help him? I saw him on Petfinder and he needs us. I know he does."
I said "no." How could we help him? He was miles and miles away, in a little place called Lewis County. We were full of dogs, and there were dogs locally that needed us too. There are so many border collies - so many dogs - on petfinder, and cruising the ads is just asking for heartache. We just can't save everyone, I told her. Sometimes being the bad guys sucks - but someone has to make the hard decisions.
Thank doG Melanie didn't listen. She asked again, and then Sonja said "If it will help, we can foster him." As happens so often, the determination and heart of my volunteers swayed me, changed my mind. So I changed my stance and I said "fine." I found a border collie rescue volunteer in the Lewis County area and I gave her number to Melanie and told her to ask if she could help us get this tall, skinny and scared dog, mistakenly labeled a "greyhound mix" out of the shelter.
And here is where Lewis' story begins, and where the mysteries of fate began to reveal themselves in the funny little ways that it does. For when Melanie called the volunteer in Chehalis who checks the shelters for border collies ... she reached her cell phone. And at that moment, when she answered her phone, she was in Lewis' kennel, trying to reach out to this terrified dog. Her joy when she answered the phone was almost tangible. Eerie, no?
In no time, Lewis - named after the shelter, as he was a stray with no name at all - was sprung from his prison and on his way to Canada.
The Lewis Report - Day One
When I went to pick him up yesterday, he was cowering in the back of
his crate almost comatose with fear. It took about ten minutes for
him to approach the front of the travel crate so I could gently coax
him out and into the back cargo section of my VW.
Living with Lewis is like living with a giant mouse. He is
absolutely quiet, scurries quickly from place to place, tries very
hard to hide under things, and forages for food at night (once
everyone is asleep). He would not eat anything at dinner, but, at
some point over night, he helped himself to the lean ground turkey
that was defrosting in the sink. (Lewis is the prime suspect as none
of our dogs has ever counter surfed). He has no training that has
become apparent so far; sit, stay, down, and up all elicit no
response other than cowering. He does not know how to walk very well
on a leash either. Actually, anything we do brings on immediate
cowering. He has shown a fear response to everything including: full
length mirrors, shoes, the phone ringing, his own blankets, the door
bell, fast movement, slow movement ... I think you get the picture.
Where did Lewis come from? How did he end up in the shelter, and what happened to him before he got there? Why was he so afraid, of everything? Would he ever come around? Lewis was a question, and his future was too. Little did we know that Lewis' future would be questionable for 7 long months in foster care. Dogs came in and dogs went out, and Lewis went overlooked again and again and again. Lewis was too shy, and he was too weird, and too tall and had too many small terrors. Didn't anyone want Lewis?
The Lewis Report - Week Two
Lewis continues to settle into our household. He no longer cowers
when he sees us. He especially enjoys his long walks to the river to
go swimming, running through the fields after Barney, and playing in
the back yard. He is a fussy eater in that it takes a great deal of
coaxing to get him to eat anything. He is skittish around his dinner
bowl and is easily scared off by either of the other two dogs looking
at him or walking by him.
Although he is affectionate with us, he is very shy of strangers,
especially men. If anyone comes into our house Lewis immediately
hides. If he feels he cannot get far enough away, he cowers and
growls. We have found that if the stranger completely
ignores Lewis and caries on with us as if there were not a dog puddle
in the house, Lewis eventually relaxes and lies quietly in a corner,
however, if the stranger shows any interest in Lewis, he reverts to
cowering, pacing and trying to hide. Lewis will not eat anything -
even roasted chicken - if a stranger is around.
In our quest to improve Lewis' confidence, we took him to the farm to meet sheep. Sheep dogs find their life's work innately satisfying, rewarding and they often feel a sense of intense accomplishment when they move the sheep. I hoped that Lewis would find a little joy in working. When coaxed out of the car he was drooling, afraid, would not make eye contact with me. When I reached for his leash he cowered and tried to hide under the vehicle. He dragged himself along the gravel on his belly as I lead him to the round pen and when I brought him through the gate he tried to turn his back on me and run.
And then Lewis saw the sheep, and I saw a brand new dog. Lewis' frightened crawl transformed itself into the low, reverberating confidence of the classic sheepdog crouch. His creeping form turned into a powerfully controlled surge forward as the scary outside world fell away and the magical world of the working sheepdog embraced Lewis like an old friend. He went around to the heads and brought the sheep to me like a seasoned pro. He darted and flexed, took strong steps to the side. Lewis flanked on the slightest pressure as though he had been doing it all his life. And when I told him "Good boy Lewis, that'll do" he came to my side with his tail wagging and leaned into me for a pat. Lewis was a working dog.
"Well, you've found Lewis, and Lewis found himself" said our trainer, who recognized that Lewis had a ton of potential on sheep. She, like us, put out feelers in the stockdog community, advertising Lew as a young potential with tons to offer a working home. But no one wanted Lewis - "Where did he come from, what's his breeding?" they asked. And the answer was never what they wanted to hear. Everyone wanted a dog with a piece of paper that outlined his value as a working sheepdog, and no one seemed to care that Lewis could work all day long without a pedigree. It was so unfair; Lewis had found his career, but no one in the industry would hire him.
And so the months passed. Occasionally someone would inquire about Lewis, and they could offer him a nice home, with a nice yard, and nice walks every day ... but no one could offer Lewis what he really wanted - the chance to work. Every week we went out the farm and it was obvious that Lewis had worked sheep before he came to us. This is what he was born to do, this is where he came from and this is where Lewis was meant to go. But he didn't go ... he stayed and stayed and stayed.
The Lewis Report Month Three
I have not sent you anything about Lewis in a long time. He
continues to become more calm every day. He survived Halloween just
fine. At first he hid upstairs when the door bell rang, but as the
evening progressed, he looked around the corner to check out who was
at the door and, by the end of the evening, he was tentatively
sniffing various children. Barney and Max were modelling appropriate
behaviour all night, and Lewis, as usual, took his behaviour cues
from them. Lewis HATES fireworks. Two blocks away from us, some
families got together to put on a loud display of 'flash and bang'.
Lewis hid under the bed for all of this.
Yesterday Lewis let a complete stranger pet him. This was a first.
I met a lady and her very large dog out on the Pitt River dikes
yesterday. She recognized Lewis from the TDBCR internet site! The
lady's large mutt, Lewis, Max and Barney played "tag" for the entire
3.5 km journey back from the river. The lady and I talked and
walked. Out of the blue she called Lewis over, and Lewis came to her
without hesitation. She patted and cuddled him. This has never
happened before! Break Through!
