“Mommy, We Have to Get Our Dogs Back!”

By LOUISE WELLS Special to the Palisadian-Post Eleven years ago an acquaintance asked if I knew anyone who wanted a dog. Soon Drake, a young pit bull/Lab mix, was my companion. A few years later, my future husband moved in with us. My canine buddy was not pleased to have another male taking up my attention, so Greg and I adopted a year-old female black Lab. Soon Drake and Stella were like husband and wife, with Stella clearly the boss. It was Drake?s idea to play tug of war, but it was Stella who dragged him across the room with the rope in her mouth. Greg and I are married now, with two sons, 6 and 3. We moved to Pacific Palisades five years ago. Our kids never knew life without our dogs. In the morning, they would help feed them and throw the ball. They turned “silly doggies” into “siggy dollies,” and we made up songs about our “siggy dollies.” I’m a songwriter and musician. Greg is a songwriter and record producer. When we were both working, we hired a dog walker to make sure our dogs got enough exercise. One afternoon in early February, our nanny was getting our boys ready for karate and saw the dog walker leave the house with Stella while workmen were putting in our new deck. An older dog, Drake can’t always keep up, so the dog walker left him home that afternoon. Four hours later, Greg came home just as the boys were about to feed the dogs. When they went outside, the gates were open and Drake and Stella were gone. We never did find out what happened. The deck contractor denied that his workmen opened the gates. Our dog walker couldn?t remember if Drake was there when she dropped Stella off. Because our dogs were wearing ID tags, we expected to receive a neighborly phone call: “I found your dogs wandering down Friends Street.” No call; no dogs. That night, Greg drove around our De Pauw/Via bluffs neighborhood calling them. No dogs. The next day we put up 100 flyers and checked the dog pounds. Many dogs; none ours. I paid an out-of-state pet detective, Sherlock Bones, $150 for unlimited consultation time. He couldn?t find our pets but suggested I put posters at every major intersection within a three-mile radius. He charged an additional $45 to design the poster for me, and what mother of two young children wouldn?t pay to save time and have a poster designed by an experienced professional? It took several of us several days to put up 400 flyers. Two days later, all but a few had been torn down. No reliable responses; no dogs. A week later, I put up flyers again. I received a lot of calls from people, mostly supportive. A few angry residents called and demanded I take down my posters. “Sorry about your dogs, but can you please remove the signs?” I want to know: How can two dogs wearing collars and ID tags, who probably left separately and are likely in two different locations, both be gone so long? Animal rescuers answer: If a dog is lost for more than a few days, he looks worse for wear and tear. Some people think the owner of a dog in that condition doesn’t deserve to get their pet back and they keep it. Some people who find lost dogs don’t even bother to try to find the owner. Dogs often aren?t turned in to shelters (where they have a chance of being reunited with their owners) because people are afraid that the shelters will kill the dogs. (Most shelters keep dogs a long time before choosing this unhappy option as the very last resort.) Sometimes homeless people adopt dogs for companionship and warmth. Panhandlers often get more sympathy when they have a pet. On the darker side, a black market exists where stolen or missing pets are sold. Although I still believe in my heart that my dogs are alive and with good people, I did due diligence and called the sanitation department one day to see if any dead animals had been picked up in the area. I was told that no reports are kept of dead animal pickups! Those dog tags the City of Los Angeles makes us pay for? They don’t keep the tags or even call the number on them when they’re attached to a dead animal. A few mornings ago, I sat with my six-year-old. “Honey,” I said, “I don’t know what else we can do to find our dogs. We might have to choose a day to do something special to say goodbye to them. How long do you think we should we give it?” “Three more years,” he replied. “We can?t give up, Mom.” My three-year-old and I recently rode our bikes side-by-side for the first time to the Sunday outdoor market on Swarthmore, with the goal of handing out what is now our fifth round of flyers. He got off his bike and spoke easily to strangers (which I told him was okay that time because I was right there). “Excuse me,” he said, holding out a flyer in his chubby little hands. “Can you help us find our lost dogs?” We’re offering a substantial reward for information leading to the return of Drake or Stella, and we welcome any help making and putting up signs in neighborhoods farther away as well as close by. If you know the whereabouts of Drake or Stella, please call (310) 740-5849 or e-mail rodeo33rpm@mac.com