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The
Rescue of Wile E. Coyote
Story by Norma Jeanne Laurette
Wile E. Arrives
Wile E. Thrives
I’ve never
believed in love at first sight but the
moment our eyes met, something stirred in my
soul. The connection was instant, a deep
bonding, as though we’d met somewhere
before. She looked up at me with total and a gentle
depth in her eyes, and as though I could
hear her speak she said “I’m here, now what?”
With a furious wag of her tail and a little
rabbit-like hop, she lay down to rest as
she was too weak to stand. She nuzzled grass
she had never seen before and rolled onto
her side to feel the warm sun for the first
time in her life, as she was flown out of
a frigid blizzard-filled tundra earlier
that morning. She looked around her with
pure delight as we watched the last two
rescued puppies frolic in the grass.
She was nowhere near the cutest puppy to
pass through my hands in the past few weeks,
in fact, she was the last of fourteen. She
was dirty and matted with a piece missing
from one ear and the tip missing from her
tail. With the appearance of a Husky cross
and judging by her size, I guessed her to
be around two months of age. Her ribs protruded
from her side and her waist was no more
than two inches across.
Trudy was
a teacher who had been teaching
at a native outpost on James Bay where the
dogs ran wild. Most died in uterine, during
or shortly after birth, and few survived
their first year. Most froze or starved
to death, were tortured or shot by locals
during what they called “dog days” in an
attempt to thin the population. I remember speaking to Trudy one week previous, as
she attempted to collect the youngest and
weakest dogs in order to fly them to safety.
She told me about one puppy that was skin
and bones and chained to a skid so she would not be shot, but she was confined
without shelter, food or water. Trudy asked
for this puppy but was refused, and when
the next group of pups arrive, she was not
among them. With only one more flight to go,
I was worried this puppy would be left to die. Finally, I received
a call that she was on her way, she
was sold to Trudy for fourty dollars. Now
that this puppy had arrived it seemed like
fate.
She exploded with
excitement at the appearance of her first
meal, jumping in the middle of the bowl
sending food flying
in all directions. It had been a long day,
so after feeding and bathing her, I
grabbed a cold beer and went to sit on the
back porch. She gently pushed her nose under
my arm and cuddled up next to me. As she
gazed up into my eyes I thought of my father
who had recently passed away. Her eyes
reminded me of the gentle and loving
expression on Dad’s face when he looked upon
an animal or child, and I said to her “Dad
would have loved you.” And when she licked
my hand I knew he already did, I felt his
presence at that moment. With two wonderful
dogs already sharing my life, I had no intention
of getting another dog, but I already knew
this was no coincidence that she was
meant to stay.
Exhausted from a busy day, we went to bed,
with this special pup in an X-pen with a
warm blanket beside my bed. Although I kept
waking to check on her, she slept
peacefully through
the night, maybe for the first
time in her life.
The next morning I chose her name, with
ribs sticking out and huge ears, she
resembled a starved coyote, I named her
Wile E. Coyote. Our first goal was a visit
to the veterinarian, she was calm and trusting
as she was examined. To my surprise she
had both puppy and adult teeth placing her
at around five and a half months of age.
She was anaemic and had rickets, and I was
told had she not been rescued, she
would not have lived much longer. He joked
that had we needed x-rays, we could simply
hold her up to the window.
I was teaching classes that evening and
took her with me. Although she was not yet
strong enough for puppy play time, I let
her and the other puppies sniff one another,
then passed her around the room for everyone
to cuddle. She seemed to enjoy the attention
and slept like a rock that night.
The following day a friend came over with
two young children and her first reaction
was to growl. Not knowing what she had experienced
in her first five months of life, I felt
a thorough socialization was in order.
Since food was the most amazing thing in
the world to her, I had the young children
sit on the floor and feed her. Within
five minutes she would wag her tail whenever
one of the children reached for her. I took
her next meal to the farmers market and
let strangers feed and handle her. Whatever had caused her to growl quickly passed,
as she learned to associate the presence
of people with food.
Wile E. thrived, she got stronger and stronger
and food motivated as she was, she learned
very quickly. She now demonstrates
training exercises
and tricks at my training school, and a fixture
in all of my classes. She has developed
amazing canine social skills and referees
play time, splitting dogs when the get too
excited or challenge one another. Although I love
all my dogs, never in my life have I
experienced such a quick and deep emotional
bond as the one I experienced with Wile E. Coyote.
or
You can make you donations by
Cheque!
Please make cheque payable to
"The International Positive Dog Training
Association"
Mail to:
"IPDTA DOGS IN NEED
FUND"
C/O Norma Jeanne Laurette,
410 Westvale Drive
Waterloo,
Ontario, Canada
N2T 2H6"
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