The Dog That Goes Bump In The Night (Another Mouth to Feed)
Things go bump in the night over here, it's the reality of living out in the countryside. You could go outside to investigate, but odds are by the time you’ve got yourself dressed against the elements and put some boots on whatever it is that made the noise will have run off. A couple of nights ago we heard some unusual creaks and crashes, but didn’t think much of it as we got ready for bed. Cozy in our pajamas with the fire going to keep us warm on an unusually frigid night in May, we didn’t think it was worth the effort of going outside to check things out. Tired from a difficult few days (more on that later) we got into bed and curled up to sleep only to realize that Charlie had peed on the blanket.
Charlie will forever be our Christmas Miracle Mutt. We found the small helpless pup on the streets on Christmas day last year, half-frozen, half-starved, entirely frightened. What choice did we have but to take him in? We swore it would be temporary, we swore we would find a suitable home for him, but ultimately we fell in love and now can’t conceive of any life without him. You can imagine, then, the terror in our hearts as we rushed Charlie to an emergency vet late last Friday night after some roughhousing with one of his big brothers led to a horrific eye injury. One very expensive emergency surgery later we’re waiting for the poor boy to heal and hoping he can still retain some vision in his damaged eye once the stitches come out (I told you it was a difficult few days.) In the meantime we’re resisting the urge to rename him Odin or Charlie the Pirate.
Charlie, for the record, does not make a habit of peeing on our bed. But between the trauma and stress of the injury and trip to the vet, and the now daily injections of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory, he can be forgiven for the occasional accident. Let’s not forget he’s also still a pup, not even a year old as of the writing of this piece. But in any case, Charlie peed on the blankets, and given the limited storage space in our house we store the extra blankets upstairs, a part of the house only accessible through the outside. We got dressed, put on our boots, put on our headlamps, and walked out into the cold rainy night.
As usual, Dor greeted us as soon as we set foot outside. Dor is a big boy, probably some kind of Black Labrador mix, and the poor thing hasn’t yet figured out how to be a dog. Dor spent the first few years of his life on the street, scavenging and fighting for survival. At some point in time, we don’t know exactly when, Dor ended up in the nearby shelter. My partner, her friend, and I make weekly trips to the dog shelter where we feed the five hundred or so dogs a little bit of home cooked chicken and try to bring some small measure of joy into their otherwise cramped and boring lives. Dor’s now-mom fell in love with him, promised to bring him home as soon as we could, and we finally made it happen about a month ago. Dor, however, has never been socialized, or properly housed, and doesn’t know how to act around the rest of the dogs (we have four, Charlie included, Dor is the fifth.) Dor isn’t aggressive, but he’s scared, and the resulting behaviors have more in common with each other than not. For everyone’s safety we made Dor a temporary home outside, spend as much time with him as we can, and let him roam free through the yard anytime the rest of the kids are in the house.
Since the rest of the kids sleep with us, the yard is Dor’s domain come nightfall, and he’s usually an excellent guard dog. On the night in question we gave Dor some love, then turned the corner to go fetch a blanket, still oblivious to what made the noises we didn’t think were worth investigating. And there she was, the source of the noise, a Dog that was distinctly not Dor nor any of our other kids, though not at all unfamiliar. Some days prior we found this poor girl on the street, much like we did Charlie, and fed her before she ran off. On the day in question we found her again, fed her again, and this time she followed us home. Though we wanted nothing more than to let her in, there was Dor to consider, a dog we’re still trying to integrate into our pack. The dog didn’t leave, but instead circled our yard until she found a weak spot in our fence and broke in.
Our fence, it must be said, has been neglected for the better part of a decade. Made of wood, and not made particularly well, much of the fence has rotted beyond the point of usefulness. We only purchased our house this year, though, and there’s been so much to repair and so many dogs to care for that I did the best I could to patch up the fence’s weak spots and it did the job when it came to our kids. This dog is different, though. This dog is persistent. After finding her in the yard the first time we escorted her outside, and I immediately patched up the fence where she broke in. The rain had started by then, and it was cold, so we knew we couldn’t just shut our doors and leave this poor dog out in the elements. And so, while I set to work on the fence my partner brought out a table, set it up outside, and covered it with a blanket to provide at least some basic shelter. The girl ignored the table entirely, instead circling our yard once again, finding another weak spot in the fence, and breaking in a second time. We repeated our song and dance, escorted her out, patched up the fence, and thought we finally got the job done. That is, until night time, when she clearly found another weak spot (fuck this fucking fence!) and broke in a third time.
It was now midnight, cold, rainy, and my partner and I were both very sleep deprived. What options did we have, though? We didn’t want to throw the girl back out onto the street, and clearly couldn’t do so anyway. There was also Dor to consider, who was accustomed to roaming the yard alone at night and who still doesn’t know how to interact with other dogs. Tired, cranky, and now wet, my partner and I set about clearing out an old chicken coop (that I really want to convert into my workshop, but alas, dogs) and put out some carpets, blankets, pillows, and anything we could find to make her cozy. We gave her food and water, and ensured Dor couldn’t get to her despite his intense curiosity. We managed to get back into the house at around 2:00 AM, and stayed up by the window listening for any signs of distress. Eventually, just before morning, we managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. The table we set out is still out in the rain as of the writing of this piece.
After taking in Dor, only a few short months after taking in Charlie, we joked that we might as well start an animal refuge. We have a bit of land, after all, and abandoned dogs in Romania are more prevalent than Starbucks in Seattle or corruption in government. Many of these dogs die on the street, many are picked up by authorities and placed in kill shelters. Some dogs are lucky enough to find non-kill shelters and live out their days confined, cramped, but alive. Very few find forever homes, especially the larger adults. What we can do for these dogs is a fraction of a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed, but we have to do something, anything, as much as we can.
In the coming days our priority will be trying to find this girl’s family if she indeed has one and is lost. Failing that, we’ll try to find her a loving home that isn’t ours, as we’ve done with other dogs we’ve found on the street, since our resources are currently stretched thin. Let’s be honest, though, odds are she’ll have nowhere to go, and we’re not abandoning her. So from a joke comes our current reality; we’re going to build Charlie’s Refuge, a sanctuary for as many dogs as we can help, but we too will need help. I’m getting cost estimates for the work we’ll need done on our land, food and vet expenses, etc, and am working on a GoFundMe campaign. In the meantime we have a Buy Me A Coffee page setup for help with daily expenses, mostly food for the shelter dogs and the street dogs we take in. With any funds that come in from the GoFundMe page we’ll be:
Buying more food for the shelter dogs and street dogs
Arranging our space to accommodate as many dogs as possible without sacrificing their quality of life
Replacing that F*%$@^#g fence to keep everyone here safe
And if we’re ever in the position to do so:
Buying more land to rescue more dogs
I’ve also started this Substack, as my original Substack was devoted to writing about mental health (I live with depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and chronic pain). Stay tuned to this space for more dog stories and progress updates. Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming support these past few days after I’ve posted about our misadventures with Charlie and our yet unnamed home invader.