The Rescue of Wile E. Coyote  ::  Annie  ::  10th Annual Dog Show 2005

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The Rescue of Wile E. Coyote

Story by Norma Jeanne Laurette                                 

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 trust 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 that 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”. I remembered 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 that 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 that this puppy would be left behind to die. Finally, I received a call that she was on her way, that she was sold to Trudy for fourty dollars. Now that this puppy had arrived it seemed like fate.

She exploded into excitement at the appearance of her first meal, jumping right in the middle of the bowl sending kibbles 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 that he already did as 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 that 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 Xpen with a warm blanket beside my bed. Although I kept waking to check on her, she slept through the night peacefully, 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, therefore, 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 anemic and had rickets and I was told that 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 that 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 kibbles. 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. What ever 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 demonstrated obedience and tricks at my training school and a fixture in all of my classes. Although I’ve always loved my dogs I have never in my life felt such a quick and deep emotional bond as that I experienced with Wile E. Coyote.

 

 

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"It's a bit stressful to send the dog on stage and know that this is it." Divita said. "Once the dog enters the stage, you just hold your breath and pray that she performs the way she was taught"

 

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About Norma Jeanne  ::  Her Mentors  ::  Her Memberships  ::  Goals, History & Beliefs

Sponsors

Sponsored by the IPDTA (International Positive Dog Training Association), Puppy Power, Delightful Dogs, Canine Communication Studies, The Canine Centre, Confident Canines, Happy Tails Dog Daycare, Canine Design, Guiding Paws, Flying Dog, Caring for Canines, On The Ball, Koer Academy, Natural Passions, Honey Wheat Kennels, Better Dog Training

 

Special Thanks To

I'd like to thank everyone who attended Puppy Power's 10th Annual Dog Show on Sunday May 29, 2005 at Victoria Park in Kitchener. This year's Dog Show was promoted by CKWR, CHYM, CKMS, DAVE FM, THE BEAT, ROGERS, CKCO-TV and THE RECORD.

 

Donations were accepted for raffle tickets and a variety of refreshments including; BBQ'd hamburgers and hotdogs, cookies, candies, chips, pop and water. All proceeds were donated to the IPDTA Northern Starving Dog Rescue.

 

Categories included; Puppy and Small Dog Recall, Adult and Large Dog Recall Competitions, Best Looking Dog, Dog/Owner Look Alike, Best Canine Costume and Best Trick Competitions as well as our ever popular Obedience Competition.

 

Since this was an outdoor event all competitions were performed on leash or "life line" to ensure safety. Rosettes were awarded for first, second and third place, with "runner-up" ribbons for all participants and the largest rosette for "Show Winner".

 

Thank you everyone who attended and those who helped to make it a successful day. Thanks to Kelly and Ingrid for taking care of the BBQ, it seemed to be a very busy place. Thank you to Sylvia of Delightful Dogs, Mirielle McNeill, Jenny Maciel of Happy Tails Dog Daycare, TaraSzczygiel of Flying Dog and Kirsandra Newel of Caring for Canines, for your help. Thanks to Cheryl White of Better Dog Training, Carrie Cleghorn ofGuiding Paws, Cathy of Honey Wheat Kennels and Tara Szczygiel of Flying Dog for setting up displays. Thank you to Eileen Lokbik of Koer Academy for the wonderful gift basket, Janice of Natural Passion for the dog toys, Cathy of Honey Wheat Kennels for the beautiful hand made items, Kimberly Davison of On The Ball for the gift certificate for a set of classes and Carrie Cleghorn for her gift certificate for a private training session. All these donations helped us to sell raffle tickets. If I left anyone out I apologize, please let me know.

As always, judges were chosen from the audience, with the exception of the categories where choosing the winners is purely mathematical. Congratulations to all our winners. Thank you to everyone for a fun and successful day!  Norma Jeanne

 

Winners

 

Puppy and Small Dog Recall 1st - Joan with Skylar 2nd - Norm with Muffin 3rd - Jackie with Samson     Adult and Large Dog Recall 1st - Tara with Tara 2nd - Margaret with Shadow 3rd - Sylvia with Mishka     Best Canine Costume 1st - Pat with Molly 2nd - Jackie with Samson 3rd - Cathy with Tara         Dog/Owner Look-Alike 1st - Betty with Blackie 2nd - Laura with Chance 3rd - Norm with Muffin

Heeling Competition 1st - Sylvia with Mishka 2nd - Tara with Hero 3rd - Wayne with Tia     Best Looking Dog 1st - Paul with Shiba 2nd - Jackie with Samson 3rd - Tracey with Milo         Best Trick Contest 1st - Wayne with Tia 2nd - Sylvia with Mishka 3rd - Taz with John

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