Later that day in the neighborhood where Wiley was
lost, John, who was driving the Escape, pulled over and
stopped near the corner of a residential intersection. Pulling
up right behind him was Nancy, John's wife, in her red
Mustang convertible. John got out of his SUV, waiting for
Nancy, and then both stood at the corner of the intersection.
“Wiley fell out the window when I went around that
corner,” he said in a voice full of sadness.
“You must have been going fast,” Nancy said.
John nodded his head. “You’re right. We had to get out
of there.”
Nancy spotted something lying in the gutter. She
crossed the street and as she neared the item, she knew
what it was. She rushed over and picked it up, then sank to
her knees and just sat on the curb, holding the blue collar,
tears in her eyes. John ran over. “This is Wiley’s collar,”
Nancy sobbed. John saw the blue collar and immediately
recognized it. He reached down for the collar, knowing this
was very bad news as Wiley was on his own with no
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identification. “John, no one will know he’s Wiley,” Nancy
said, head down.
As they walked back to their cars, with Nancy holding
Wiley's collar, she noticed a stray dog down one of the
streets. She stopped and pointed ahead. “John, look past the
big tree. There's a dog running down there.”
John took a quick look and grabbed Nancy's hand and
pulled her along toward the Escape. They jumped in and
headed down the street until they were parallel to the dog.
The dog was not Wiley but was lost or abandoned. John
stopped the SUV, and he and Nancy looked at the dog,
which stood on the sidewalk and stared back at them. He
was desperately searching for the faces of his owners. A
medium-sized dog with brown hair and large brown eyes,
he was in poor shape from being on the streets, hungry and
scared. John and Nancy just sat in the Escape and stared
back for a moment.
They both realized that this was what Wiley was
facing. Nancy turned to John, “Poor dog,” she said. “We
have to help.”
At that moment, John got out of the Escape. He had a
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couple of Wiley's biscuits with him and he tried to call the
dog over. “It's ok. Good dog. Here's a biscuit,” John said as
he gently slid a biscuit toward the dog. The dog waited for
a moment and then quickly took the biscuit and devoured
it. Very calmly John said, “Here you go, have another.”
While the dog finished off the biscuit, John got close
enough to see that it did have a collar with some data on it.
But John had gone too close and the dog just couldn’t trust
him and took off down the street. John threw both his hands
in the air, turned around, and came back to the Escape.
John and Nancy sat in silence for awhile.
“Wiley's just like that dog, lost with no food or water,”
a discouraged Nancy said.
John wouldn’t listen and reminded her, “Nance, Wiley's
a survivor. You know how he kept alive as a pup.”
Nancy’s spirit returned, “You're right.”
John started the Escape and swung around and returned
to Nancy's red Mustang convertible. He looked at his watch
and said determinedly, “I have to get back to the animal
control center.”
It was almost closing time when John entered the
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animal control center. He rushed over to the counter with a
roll of flyers in his hands. “I was in earlier and was told to
check at the end of day,” he said. “Did you pick up this dog
today?” John opened his flyer and pointed to Wiley’s
picture. “This is my dog Wiley.”
The officer asked, “Did he have a collar with
identification?”
John held up a blue collar, “Yes, but he lost it.”
“I'm sorry. No ID makes it very difficult,” responded
the officer.
John became irritated, “I know. I know. Where are the
dogs you picked up today?”
The officer glanced up at John and said, “We haven't
had a chance to process all the dogs we took in today. The
dogs with no ID are processed last.”
“Where are they?” John demanded.
The officer pointed to a door and said, “We have no
kennels for them. They're in a large holding pen behind the
kennels. We close in a few minutes.”
John left the counter, went through the door, and ran to
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the rear of the center where he saw a large circular pen
filled with a wide array of dogs barking, yelping and
milling around. He ran around the pen shouting out Wiley's
name, while looking over at all the dogs. “Wiley! Wiley!”
There was no answer. John leaned into the pen, looking
closely at the dogs and yelled, “Wiley, I'm over here,”
drawing a lot of attention from hopeful dogs who thought
he was there to rescue them. They swarmed in front of him.
But he saw no sign of Wiley. A panic began to set in as
John realized how long Wiley had been missing. He stared
at the mass of homeless dogs and said mournfully, “I wish I
could take you all home.”
One of the CACC workers entered the area and tried to
get his attention shouting, “It's closing time.”
John took one more look and then turned and slowly
walked back through the kennel area where the dogs were
being held. As he passed each kennel, the dogs in the
kennels came forward with hopeful friendly faces and tried
their very best to gain his attention by barking, jumping up,
or pawing against the cage. As he past their kennels and
they realized that they were not going to be rescued, the
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dogs slumped to the concrete floor with their heads down
and eyes blank. They all wanted a home.
John came out of the CACC building and slowly
walked back to the parking lot and got in the Escape. As he
drove out of the parking lot, an animal control truck entered
the rear yard of the center. Earl was driving and backed the
truck up to an unloading dock and stopped. He looked over
at Brad and said, “We're late, but I had to take care of some
personal business.”
Brad nodded, “No problem, Earl.”
Then they got out and came around to Wiley's holding
cage. Brad reached in and helped Wiley up and then down
to the ground and slipped a noose over him and led him
into a building. Wiley was shaking all over. Brad tried to
settle him down. “It's ok, boy. No one is going to hurt you.”
Wiley was then led to the large holding pen of dogs that
John had just left. Brad guided him into the pen and
removed the noose and told Wiley, “Don't worry. Your
owners will find you.”
Wiley was in a state of shock. He had no idea of where
he was or what was happening. He stumbled around
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looking at all the other dogs that had been rounded up that
day. He said to himself, “Where am I? This must be a
dream.”
At that moment he bumped into a pit bull mix who
stared at him and warned, “Hey, buddy, watch it.”
Wiley jumped out of the way and quickly apologized,
“Sorry.” He retreated from the menacing dog and continued
to look around, noticing a dog in the far corner of the pen
that looked familiar. He continued to stare at the very large
dog, who appeared to be half Lab and half Great Dane. The
dog also noticed Wiley and at that moment both of them
realized they were in this hell hole because of one another.
Smasher started to work his way through the other dogs
towards Wiley, who muttered, “This can’t be happening to
me."
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