Interstate Memoirs
with love and gratitude to Penn-Dutch Rescue
Belle Evans
March, 1995
The diagnosis came swiftly, flash-freezing every nerve. My first call was to Jane Gill. I was living in Ohio now, but Belle had been a Penn-Dutch Rescue Pyr. The words tumbled out in a blur of pain and loss: osteosarcoma... 2 weeks--three at most. Jane listened, and listened some more.
"I don't want any more Pyrs, especially Rescue ones. They don't live long enough!"
"I hear what you're saying. Does she like vanilla ice cream?"
"What?!!!"
Jane's gentle reminder in the midst of my self-absorbed despair that I still had a job to do: to walk a cherished companion to the edge of the Rainbow Bridge, and let her go...
April, 1995
I called Jane again when it was over, sobbing, wallowing.
"Come to Cleveland," she said crisply. There are people you need to meet." (How could I think of the National at a time like this? How could she even suggest it?) "You need to meet the Ohio people" She was firm. I went to Cleveland. (But just this one last time, you know)...
"You remember Janet Ingram (of course!)...and Pat Wallace, from the '93 National? (vaguely)...and you should say hello to Kathy Grimm...(who?) Janet was talking about relocating some Pyrs from Florida after a big fire...Somehow I got reintroduced to Pat and within a few minutes found myself next to Kathy, showing her pictures of Belle. "I don't want another Pyr; and I'm going to take a break from Rescue." Kathy murmured something sympathetic but got my phone number, anyway: "We don't have anyone in Southwest Ohio and it's a big problem area. May I call you sometime...? (Well, okay, maybe one time)...
July, 1995
Kathy called. "I need some help..." His name was Luke. Five years old and barely 60 pounds. Found running on the road... starved, matted, covered with ticks and burrs... there had been so many in the last couple of months, but until now I had managed to keep some distance between these gentle scarecrow-waifs and my injured heart. But there was something about this one... Kathy prodded: " I'm overloaded and expecting more. Can you just for a little while... and Pat said Jane Gill said you specialized in refeeding!" (Well, okay. Maybe for a week or so. But that's all! And I need to call Jane again and tell her to keep quiet!) A week became a month and then another and I finally made it official. Lucas (renamed to avoid neighborly confusion) became my first Ohio Rescue Pyr, courtesy of Jane Gill and those relentless Penn-Dutchies.
September, 1995, and on into '96
Kathy asked if she could put my name on HOH Club cards, as a source of Rescue information (Well, okay, but just for a little while...), The calls came, and Kathy and I began working together regularly in Rescue (how did this happen, anyway? Jane?). Before long a second Pyr, Alexis, joined my little pack: an underweight, undersized, terrified back-yard bred little miniature. Alexis was just a temporary foster placement--but she started doing so much better, you see, that I couldn't give her up right away and then... well, I remember signing some papers and she just sort of stayed...
March, 1997
It started to rain in Southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky, and the Great Flood of '97 was born. I heard on the evening news about a group called United Animal Nations and their Emergency Animal Rescue Service and how they had just come to Ohio to help the "other" victims of this terrible flood. I went to the Fairgrounds and asked where I could sign up to volunteer. The volunteer form I filled out asked if you represented any organization. I hesitated just for a second, then put down "Heart of Ohio and Penn-Dutch Great Pyrenees Rescue." Pat and Kathy came down and other Rescue people joined with other clubs and groups to work round the clock with UAN-EARS to drag animal life from raging Ohio and Kentucky rivers. We started talking about forming a Mid-West Task Force that could be trained for future emergency work. For someone who had vowed to drop out of Rescue, I sure was busy these days!
My weekends were barely back to normal when Kathy called with a special request... could I foster Alice, just for a couple of weeks, because she was expecting another influx of stray and abandoned Pyrs and had no place for this latest Rescue. I was adamant: I would keep her for a week--maybe two, but as soon as another foster placement could be found, she was out of here! After all, one has to put one's foot down once in a while, right? I mean, I hadn't wanted any more Rescue Pyrs, and had two already! Enough is enough! Twenty-four hours after Alice arrived it was clear she would need a lot of very special handling. I mean, I couldn't turn her over to just anybody, could I? That was 4 months ago...
I'm sitting at my bedroom window while working on this "thank
you" to all you Penn-Dutchies, looking out over Belle's grave,
and drinking coffee from my Pyr cup that has a picture on it of Lucas,
Alexis and Adrienne (the former Alice, formally adopted and renamed)
sitting on my couch. A local shelter called yesterday and I have to
go down and check out a Pyr someone brought in. I think I can foster
him for a little while... and I think of Jane Gill, and all those
other incredibly dedicated Rescue people in Pennsylvania and Ohio
who kept me connected, whether they realized it or not. Of all the
things we need in Rescue--more humane laws, more money, more time,
more good homes, more volunteers, more sleep--I've learned that
in those times when our faith, our prayers, our will to face yet another
heartbreak falter, more than anything else, we need each other. Thanks
to Penn-Dutch Rescue, I plan to be there.
