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Introduction:

In this latest story, I took a risk. The human portion is mostly true; two dogs really were found and reunited with their owners. Noone really knows how they got so far from their home. I decided to add the dog’s point of view to the story. In any of my other part-fiction stories, I’ve never taken the liberty to write from an animal’s viewpoint. I think all animals have a story to tell, and if we listen well enough, we can at least try to understand our furry friends. This is dedicated to all the lost animals trying to find their way home and to all of the caring people who take the time to help.

The humans view.

The two dogs came out of nowhere and were excited to see Marie as she went out for her walk around the neighborhood.  Marie was house sitting for her sister and had just gotten geared up for a long walk.  The dogs wriggled with glee when they saw her and she figured they were the neighbor dogs that roam around the area, so she ran in the house to get a snack for them.  After sending a picture to her sister, she realized they were not the neighborhood dogs; Kay told her that Opal and Ivy often left their backyard to chase the mailman or come over and visit, but these two dogs had never been around before. Marie ran in to get them a bowl of water and figured they belonged to someone around the neighborhood, so she proceeded to go on her walk.

What she hadn’t expected was the dogs to follow her the entire way.  They followed her on her walk and back to her sister’s house and seemed to get anxious when she went into the house.  Marie called Kay and asked her what she should do.  Kay contacted her neighbor who already had two dogs and asked if they could assist.  John and Linda brought the dogs in their back yard and quickly realized these dogs must be someone’s house pets.  It had begun to rain, so John brought them inside the and made them a bed in their finished basement.  The dogs didn’t have any accidents and were perfectly comfortable inside.   John and Linda posted the dogs on a social media site as did Kay. They all got busy trying to find the owners or a new home for these well-behaved dogs.

As the next 5 days passed, everyone feared that someone dumped these dogs, which seemed odd because they looked like pure-breads, and they were so well-behaved. Kay couldn’t believe how heartless some people could be. She had found someone who would take the dogs for John and Linda, but they had already fallen in love with the dogs and decided to keep them until they could either find the owners or a good home.

Five days later, Kay had received the message from John, that the owners contacted them; they had seen Debbie’s post on the social media site. They had been looking for the dogs for almost 2 weeks!  The owners, who were raising their grandson, were desperate to find Jo and Ella; what they couldn’t figure out is why the dogs were missing their collars and how they managed to get 25 miles north from their home. Oh, the adventures they must have had, both good and bad.   John figured someone took the dogs, disposed of their collars, and then decided they didn’t want them, so they dumped them in the neighborhood. Jo and Ella were inseparable; they stayed by each other’s side the entire time they were at John and Linda’s.  They loved people and loved to play; John couldn’t figure out why someone wouldn’t want these dogs.

The dogs view.

“Come on Jo, we need to keep moving, we have to get away.”  “I’m so tired Ella, can’t we just lay down somewhere for a while?”  The two wanted to get as far away from the terrible people that took them out of their backyard.  It was the day after Christmas, when Jo and Ella were playing in the backyard while their owners ran to the store.  Jo and Ella could hear a car approach and the sounds it made weren’t familiar.  They saw a man and woman approach and they could sense danger right away, so they shrank in the corner of the fence, together. Jo and Ella loved each other; they have been together since each of them left their mothers and came to live with Ben and Judy. They loved the home Ben and Judy gave them and they loved Jed, the grandson. Jo and Ella had comfortable beds, good food, and lots of room to play. They didn’t stay outside all the time, but today the sun was shining, and Judy asked Ben if the girls could stay out and play while they ran to the store really quick.  The man and woman opened the gate and came near Jo and Ella, they had treats and a long rope; they had stunk like some kind of smokey smell that Jo and Ella hadn’t smelled before. Their hands were dirty, and their nails were yellow; Jo and Ella tried to get away, but the man and woman grabbed their collars, put a rope around them and dragged them to the truck.  They were shaking and afraid; they usually liked people but these two seemed scary and mean. They didn’t pet the two dogs like other people did and the way they talked to Jo and Ella was loud and frightening.  They were in the back of a pick-up truck that was covered, so it was dark inside. The ride was bumpy and seemed to last forever. All the familiar smells of their hometown were going away.  Jo and Ella curled up together shaking.  “It will be okay Ella.”  Jo was the taller and slightly older of the two dogs and was always taking the lead. Ella seemed to like Jo being in charge and let her lead the way in anything they did. Finally, the truck came to a stop.

When the back of the truck opened, dirty hands snatched them out and dragged them to a back yard that had no grass. There was a tree, a dirty dog pen and nothing else except an old beat-up tin bowl with dirty water inside. Jo thought this looked like other dogs lived here before, but she couldn’t imagine how they would have survived in that old pen.  There were no blankets, no toys, and no grass. There were left over piles of excrement in a corner and Jo hoped with everything inside of her that she and Ella weren’t going to go inside.  To her horror, that is exactly what happened.  The two people pushed them inside and spent a long time trying to get the gate locked.  “I told you we need to get that lock fixed, it takes forever to get it latched and I’m sick of messing with it.”  The lady said to the man. The man yelled to the woman to go get some of last nights scraps to give to “the dogs” and quit griping about everything.  He also said something to her about getting busy with her contacts so they didn’t have to keep these “things” around very often and could get their money. The man said he was going to go get some “smokes” and would be back in an hour.  “Make sure to get rid of the collars, we don’t need anyone finding out where these two came from.”

  “Jo, I’m afraid. It sounds like we are going to go to new people, and we won’t see Ben, Judy, or Jed again”. “Stay calm Ella, I need to think of how we can get out of here.”  The lady came back in, she spent a long time trying to get the gate open, she was saying words that Jo and Ella never heard Ben and Judy say. When she finally yanked the pen door open, she threw what looked like meat fat onto the dirty ground.  It had a funny smell and Jo warned Ella to stay away from it.  “Stop your barking, or I’ll really give you something to bark about.” The lady yelled.  She said some kind of mean word, again, and said she forgot the water. She got really close to Jo and Ella and said “look here, I don’t want trouble from you two. No barking and no tricks. You won’t be here long if I can help it, so just go lay down in that corner.”  She pointed to a dirty corner. “Go on, go lay down while I get your water.”  When Jo and Ella didn’t move, she kicked at them and pointed to the corner.  Jo looked at Ella and started to go to the area the lady pointed to. Ella followed.  When they both laid down, the mean lady seemed satisfied.  She walked up to them, yanked their collars off, and went out of the gate. She fiddled with the handle for a minute, said one of those words and walked towards the house.  “Ella, do you see what I see?”  “Yes, Jo, that awful lady didn’t lock the gate all the way.”   “Right, Ella, this is our time. We must go now, or we won’t see our people ever again.”   The two jumped up ran and the gate with all their might and pushed. Nothing happened. They tried again without luck.  The lady started to come out of the house yelling for them to get away from the gate.  Ella yelped out of fear. “Come on Ella, all of our force, now!”  The two ran as hard as they could into the gate, and it opened.  They ran around the yard, found the lowest part of the fence, and jumped.  Jo made it over, but Ella didn’t. The lady started running towards Ella as fast as she could, screaming all kinds of words.  Jo barked orders at Ella “come on, give it all you can girl.”  Ella backed up a little looked behind her at the lady closing in on her and jumped with everything inside of her.  The fence hit her stomach and scratched her, but she made it over.  The two ran as fast as they could into the woods. They ran for hours without stopping before they came to a creek.  They lapped up some water, rested for a minute, and moved on.

“Ella, I’m not sure why, but I think we need to go in that direction.” Jo pointed her nose to her right. The two walked on, slowing their pace a little.  It started getting dark and they needed to find someplace to rest.  They found a pile of leaves and decided to sleep there for the night, by now the moon was high up in the sky and it was getting colder.  They cuddled together and tried to sleep. “I’m afraid of all the noises, Jo. It smells scary out here too.”  “I know Ella, I’m afraid too. Maybe we should take turns listening and watching until morning.”  Ella slept first while Jo stood guard; she saw deer walk through the forest and heard owls, but nothing else.  Jo woke Ella up to take a turn sleeping and decided that they would start early in the morning, following the creek.  Jo remembers walking with Ben and Judy on their property and finding a creek. She had no idea if this led to their home, but she knew they were a long way from it. She could feel it.  She could smell it. They spent two days and nights in those woods before venturing out on the third day.

Jo and Ella had started the third day of their journey before the sun came up.  They were hungry and cold, but they pressed on.  They had decided to stay as far from people as possible, unless they could tell that the people were good ones like their own people.  “I miss our people, Jo.”  “Me too, Ella, I miss our beds, our back yard, our toys, and our food.  Let’s keep going, I know Ben and Judy will be looking for us, and I bet those mean people will too” The two walked on for most of the day before stopping to get water.  They lived in a hilly area, so navigating the woods was difficult, and even harder to stay close to the stream.  They heard a dog bark and went up to the top of the hill to see a house close by. The dog was in a yard that didn’t have any fence, but he didn’t go outside of certain areas. He had some sort of collar with something attached to it.  “Ella, he doesn’t like us being around his yard, but he can’t cross over for some reason. Let’s to the other side of the house”.  The two were walking around the yard, when a man came outside the front door.  He saw Ella and Jo and smiled. “Hi, you two, what are you doing around here? You must have come a long way, there aren’t any houses for miles.”  Something about the man, made Jo and Ella trust him. He wasn’t mean, he didn’t smell bad, and he did that thing with his mouth that humans do when they like something.  “Sharon, come out and see our visitors”.  A lady came out and made some gushy noises about how pretty they were.  Jo and Ella walked up to the man and lady and let them rub their hands all over them. It felt good; like their own people did to them.  “They must be lost, the lady said to the man.”  The man told the lady that they were already late to the hospital and couldn’t do anything right now, but told her to let Scruffy in the house, from the back yard while he gets some food and water bowls for the girls.  The lady had a big round belly and held it while she walked in the house.  The man said something about his brother coming to take care of scruffy until the baby was born. He said if the two dogs were still around tomorrow, they would try to find their home.  The man brought out a big bowl, filled with food for both Ella and Jo, the water bowl was big and clean, filled with cold water.  “Here you girls. I’m sorry we can’t stay, little junior is on the way and we have to go.”  The man and lady pulled away while Jo and Ella ate their food.

“I think we are safe here Jo. Let’s stay a while.”  Jo agreed that they could rest, but that they needed to keep going in case the man and lady were gone a long time.  It wasn’t a guarantee that they would try to find Jo and Ella’s people.  The two finished their food, drank some water and lay down in the soft grass while the sun was out.  It was a little cold, but it wasn’t raining and they enjoyed being able to nap for a bit.  They awoke to the sound of a vehicle on the road that went in front of the house. It sounded like that bad truck with those mean people.  “Come on Ella, let’s get in the bushes.”  The two ran behind the bushes as the truck went past. Sure enough, it was those mean people. “They must be looking for us, we have to stay off of the road when we leave.” Jo said to Ella.  The two decided they had rested long enough, and it was time to go. The sun was straight up in the sky, so Jo knew that the daylight was half over.

Two more nights passed in the woods with Ella and Jo walking, drinking, resting and moving toward what they hoped was home.  Jo felt like they were going in the right direction, but the truck ride was so long, she couldn’t be sure where they were.  They never strayed away from their yard on their own, so she wasn’t used to using her nose to navigate.  She could remember a funny smell getting inside the truck when they were about halfway to the bad house.  It smelled like chemicals burning and she could smell it now.  She knew they were going in the right direction, so it gave her motivation to keep going.  That night, she could see lights and smell familiar smells of people, garbage, and car fumes.  When they peeked out of the woods, they could see a store and a place where people go to eat. The smell was so good that Jo thought they should sneak down there and see if they could get something out of the garbage cans.  They weren’t used to having to search for food, but this seemed like a good idea.

While they were walking across the parking lot, a few people looked at them a commented how cute they were. One person threw part of his sandwich to them. Jo and Ella split it and kept walking around the back.  Next to the big green container that people threw garbage into, there was a square box. Jo pushed the lid open and found a half of a pizza inside. “Jackpot, Ella.  Let’s have dinner and get back into the woods”.  The two ate as fast as they could and ran back to the woods, where they felt relatively safe.  They spent another two nights in the woods before finding a large subdivision. There were all kinds of houses and big back yards.  They walked around before finding a back yard that looked like it hadn’t been lived in for a long time. There was one of those signs in the yard that people put in it when they move away.  Jo and Ella climbed on the back porch, looked in the house, and could see that there was nothing inside.  They decided to take a nap on the porch.  They were into a deep sleep when they heard people. All of a sudden, there was a lady, who smelled nice, and carried some kind of book in her hand. She had two people behind her that she was talking to. They all noticed Jo and Ella at once and started talking to the dogs. The lady behind the good smelling one, asked if the other owners left these dogs behind.  The lady in front told her that she had never seen them before.  They commented that the dogs were pretty but looked tired and a little skinny.  The man reminder her that “Baxter” was in the car and said he was going to go get some of his treats.  Jo and Ella knew what that word meant. Their ears perked up, and the got up and wiggled over to the people.  The lady in front said she was going to go see if she could find something to put water in for them.  “They must belong to someone around here; I will check in with a colleague when I get back to the office.” The lady told the other two people.  The man came back with a big handful of treats and gave Jo and Ella equal amounts.  The treats felt so good in their tummies.  They decided, however, that they should go, so they barked a “thank you” to the man and went on their way.  They had been gone from their people for 5 days now and they were sad.

Three more days and nights passed, and Jo and Ella were frightened. They hadn’t made as much ground as they wanted because of the hills and dense trees in the forest. Jo knew that dogs could travel far in one day, she wished she knew how much further they needed to go.  Jo decided they needed to take a chance the next time they come to a neighborhood. After a few more hours, they walked into a neighborhood and up a hilly yard. That’s when they saw a lady that looked nice. They went up to her and she talked to them and gave them treats.  She was very friendly and said she was going for a walk.  Jo and Ella knew that word too; even though they had been so far, they decided a walk with this lady would be fun. They followed her all around; she laughed and pet them while she was walking.  She talked really nice to them too; they thought this would be a good place to stay for a little while.  When the nice lady got back to the house, she let them come in the back yard. They wanted so bad to go inside; they barked and barked at her to let them in. She ended up opening the fence so they could go in and out. That was when her neighbor whistled to them, and they ran over to see what that was about.  They had heard their people whistle to them like that before and it usually meant something good was going to happen. 

The neighbor people let them in and stay inside the house! They gave them food, brushed them, and commented how they must belong to someone. Both Ella and Jo barked “yes, yes, please find our people.”  How they wished these people could understand them.  They wanted to tell them how far they had come, how the bad people took them and wanted to give them to other people for money.  Jo and Ella heard the people talk to each other; their names were John and Linda.  John told Linda that Kay was trying to find homes for them by putting something on the computer.  Linda said she was going to do the same.  They talked about how many people were trying to find their owners or another home for the dogs. “No! we love it here, and I know John and Linda would find us nice people, but we want our people”, Ella said to Jo.  Ella and Jo loved their time in John and Linda’s back yard. They barked over at the neighbors to say hi to them and enjoyed when they came over to pet them.  They tried to tell everyone about Ben and Judy, but nobody understood them.

One night, Jo and Ella were sitting by the fire with John and Linda and their two dogs: Sam and Bonnie.  Jo and Ella were so thankful to Sam and Bonnie for sharing their home.  They heard Linda on the phone and then say something to John about “the owners”.  Debbie talked on the phone for a while and then turned around and asked them “Are you Jo and Ella?”  The two jumped up, barked, and wagged their tails to let John and Linda know that those were their names. They were so excited.  An hour or so later, the doorbell rang, and their people came inside. Jo and Ella couldn’t remember a time that they felt so happy.  Jed was crying and hugging them; Ben and Judy mentioned that this place was 25 miles North of their home. When Ben pointed to their home, Jo could see that North was the opposite way they came. They had traveled for all those days from what must have been South. They were way farther away than 25 miles from home when they escaped the bad people.  Jo knew that nobody would ever know what Ella and she went through to get here. Their people had no idea just how far Jo and Ella had traveled to get back to them.  The two laid, contently, in the backseat all the way home, happy they found their people, and even happier that there were good people in the world to help them on their journey. “From now on, I will never take my eyes off of these girls. I’ll never leave them alone in the backyard again,” said Judy. Jo and Ella looked at each other with big dog smiles on their faces and closed their eyes to sleep.