The continuing saga of Teller, the skinny downtown stray: To paraphrase what I wrote several weeks ago…I met a very sad-looking stray dog downtown. I tried to feed, play, and love on him for weeks. If you needed to call it something, it could have been described as a ‘slight’ obsession, but only if you were required to call it something. As I found out later, I was only one of several people (and I mean more people than you can ever imagine) that were keeping this sad dog in their thoughts and snacks, every single day.
Kim kept him watered at Texas Gulf Bank. Jimmy came up on the weekends with food. Twice a day. Dolores was feeding him in the alley between Parking Way and Circle Way. He had Dr. Gotcher and his office staff tied around his little paw. Kellie, Kevin, and Brittany from Edward Jones were on his visiting list. The tellers at First National Bank were watching from their drive-thru window. There were traps set by the city that he evaded each and every time…because he is so very clever. This dog had people rooting for him and watching from afar, every time the animal control truck started its engine. He was a street-smart dog that everyone wanted to see be successful. For some of us, we thought he needed to be caught so he had a chance of a normal life, but others were just tickled to see him avoid arrest. Fred Ortiz told me how smart he thought the dog was… “If he wasn’t really smart, they would have captured him by now.” Yep.
When he crossed to the other side of 288/332, Dr. Pisarski’s office, Dolores, and the staff, spoiled him with snacks and rotisserie chicken twice a day. Each week, I hear from someone that stopped what they were doing during their busy day to show him a little kindness and care. So much love was given to this elusive, street-smart dog. He moved from location to location, staying just long enough for people to fall straight smack in love with him. Every day, I sat at my office thinking about him. Several days could pass without me being able to spot him, then a friend would call or text me with a new location and I would jump up and go see if it were true.
One morning, my friend Cheryl sent me a text saying that Teller had been located at the Buc-ee’s in Angleton. One of the girls from Dr. Pisarski’s office had seen him hanging around. What were the chances of that happening? Anne-Elisabeth and I jumped into our clothes and rushed to Angleton. The entire ride was spent wondering and questioning each other about how in the world he made it to Angleton. This dog did not trust anyone and would never, ever have entered a vehicle with anyone to make that long trip. What could have happened? We couldn’t locate him when we first got there, checking the hotel next door and some back roads, so after searching for about thirty minutes, I looked across a field and spotted two vehicles with their flashers on. We turned around and headed back to Hwy #36. Sure enough, it was the Angleton Animal Control officer and another lady stopped, both of them trying so hard to get him corralled and out of the traffic. We stopped and I got out, mentioning the name Teller. Both women whipped around and said, “This is Teller?!?” As it turned out one of the ladies was Alanda, with Gulf Coast Stars who just happened to drive by. The Angleton Animal Control officer went back to her office to get what she needed, permission was granted by the storage company to dart him on the property, and I pulled out a bag of dog food to feed the poor thing. As I fed him, I tried to talk convincingly about how this whole ugly situation was going to come together, and he was going to be saved…saved from winter weather, saved from getting run over by an 18-wheeler, saved from starving, and most of all, saved from himself. He fell asleep while I was talking to him, tired from his long journey, I guess.
After that day, Teller ended up at the SPCA in LJ. This caused quite a bit of excitement. The first day I called and asked if I could visit with him. No, they said to give him a few days to acclimate to his new world. Hmmm. This was not good enough for me, so the next day I just showed up and asked if Teller was receiving guests yet. Absolutely. They took me straight to his suite, where his crate was set up in someone’s office. He was happy and after a lot of one-on-one time and the patience of a young woman, he had bonded with his first human, Kim. That day, I sat on the floor without moving a muscle, just talking softly to him, tearing off tiny bits of the dried chicken treats that he loved so much. It took me about thirty minutes, but then I received my first small kiss, and more kisses followed. We were friends…finally. The next day I arrived again at the SPCA, and we went for a walk. Now those first couple of weeks were some crazy walking times, unlike any other that I had ever been on with my other dogs. They told us not to pull him on the leash, just let him pick where he wanted to go. Well, he wanted to go everywhere, but if the leash touched his tail, he freaked. He liked for you to walk beside him but not behind him. He liked women more than he liked men. The kids and I did this every day for quite a while, then we graduated to the dog park, but always kept him on the leash. They continued to tell us that it was going to take a while to gain his trust and they wanted to find the right family for him. We agreed.
Then the day came when I was told that the SPCA was getting ready to ship him to the northwest to be adopted. What?!? When?!? I was not ready for this, and neither were my kids. We found ourselves “in love” with this goofy dog, so we asked if we could foster him, you know…take him home for his first sleepover. We had no idea if adopting him was the right thing “for him” because we don’t really have a backyard. That afternoon we spent a fortune on a crate, a water bowl, a leash, toys, treats, and poop bags…hmmm, just a foster. Who was I fooling? We never took him back except to visit James, Kim, and Julie, along with all the other great people that took such good care of him during the transition period. The SPCA was great! Today, Teller is doing well. He has friends all over town. He goes to work with me most days. When we get there in the mornings, he is so excited to see Connie, Janice, Pam, Hailey, Tina, Ashley, and Thomas. When a customer comes in our front door, he gets up to see who it is. If they talk to him, he will stay and visit. If there is no conversation for him to enjoy, then he comes back in my office.
Teller is super smart, but super hard-headed. He can sit, shake, lay down, guess which hand the treat is in, and we continue to work on staying in place. Teller can fetch and play ball. He even brings back the ball ‘most’ times. His favorite toy is Cookie Monster because it squeaks. He picked it out at PetSmart and carried it to the counter one evening, right after he peed on their floor. He sleeps late which is a real plus at our house. Gage gives him his last walk around midnight. He loves the dog park and has made many friends there. Foxie, Pepper, Flea, Penny, Moose, and so many more. His new fur is beautiful, a gorgeous red color, with feathering starting to show on his legs and tummy. It is hard to tell what kind of dog he is, but there is likely some Lab and maybe Vizsla. Teller is so sweet, gentle, affectionate, and sensitive, but he is also a great protector when he thinks we need protecting. When he sleeps, he has doggie dreams. Sometimes he is barking, sometimes he is whining, and sometimes he is running in his dreams. When I hear him in the middle of the night, I’ll get up, softly wake him up, and whisper to him that he has nothing to worry about now. He is no longer a stray, because now he has his OWN family.
Thank you to every single person that helped this dog. I know I don’t have all your names, but I still say thank you. So, there is nothing better than a happy ending. As I told you before, happiness often sneaks in a door you did not think was open. There may be a big old bunch of negative things that have happened in 2020, but some really good things happened too. Let’s face it, true love is hard to beat.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Actor Dick Van Dyke is 95. Actor Christopher Plummer is 91. Actor-singer John Davidson is 79. Actor Kathy Garver is 75. Family Affair. Singer Ted Nugent is 72. Guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter is 72. The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan. Actor Wendie Malick is 70. Hot in Cleveland, Just Shoot Me. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 61. Family Affair. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 53. Singer Taylor Swift is 31.
Jimmy Buffett released a new album called Songs You Don’t Know by Heart, acoustic performances of early tunes including many he has rarely played live. His daughter, Delaney, sat down with her dad and filmed the unplugged versions of the songs along with some great stories behind the songs. Buffet says, “It’s been a large silver lining to spend this time with Delaney, revisiting these old songs, having the time to recall inspiration that led to these early songs.” He added, “If it wasn’t for you requesting these songs…I would not know [them] now by heart, and I do, ’cause I had to learn them again.”
Good music doesn’t have an expiration date. Aren’t we lucky to live during this time? It is really a bit surreal. Would all these wonderful musicians be putting out all this great music if a global pandemic had not forced them into lockdown or ‘rockdown,’ as some are calling it. We sure get to benefit. I just read an inspirational quote by George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.” Maybe we all need to pick what we love and play more. Not just when Covid is over, now. Paul McCartney has a new album called McCartney III. McCartney let his hair grow grey and he looks pretty dang good for a 78-year-old rocker. One song was, Women and Wives. Husbands and Lovers. You can watch his new music video of “Find My Way,” on YouTube. Taylor Swift released a new album called evermore, a companion album to folklore.
More than 18,000 Americans died of Covid-19 in the past week, adding to the 316,000 Americans that have died this year. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that more than 237,000 Americans will die of Covid-19 in the next three months. It’s what they’re calling, out of control. Please wear your mask.
Former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, says that he was wrong to take off his mask at the White House. “This message isn’t for everyone. It’s for all those people who refuse to wear a mask. You know lying in isolation in ICU for seven days I thought about how wrong I was to remove my mask at the White House,” Christie says in the ad. “Today, I think about how wrong it is to let mask wearing divide us, especially as we now know you’re twice as likely to get Covid-19 if you don’t wear a mask. Because if you don’t do the right thing, we could all end up on the wrong side of history. Please wear a mask.” Too bad he didn’t understand this before he spent 7 days in ICU.
In a Finland aquarium, there is a grouper named Mikko who has been a little down-in-the-mouth since the pandemic eliminated his visitors. He missed seeing humans and his caretakers noticed, so they started taking their breaks near his tank, gave him a TV, and would brush him, until the day he snatched the brush from a keeper’s hand and swallowed it. The brush lodged in his throat, he was anesthetized, and the brush safely removed. So, then they decided to throw him a birthday party. There were no fish-friends to invite because he had eaten all of them, including a venomous lionfish. See, everyone is a little depressed by the pandemic. If you get a chance, go by The Sea Center on Medical Drive. Their hours are reduced but you can still visit Tuesday – Saturday, it is free, and those fish need to see some people.
Remember to support the SPCA. Several people have asked to make a donation in Teller’s name. PLEASE DO. The SPCA does so much for the puppies and kittens in our community, with extraordinarily little money. Do not forget to spay and neuter your pets. It is the only fair thing to do. Have a great Christmas! Thank you for sharing your year with us.
Lisa
