Alameda High School Junior, Hannah Boles, had no idea she was about to engage in her second stray dog rescue when she spied a white and tan Pit Bull mix wandering aimlessly down Fernside Boulevard in Alameda on Sunday April 12th.
This time it would require uncommon patience on the part of this 16 year old, the kind of staying and caring power not always a part of her age group, or even those way past it.
She asked her sister, Catherine to stop the car so she could go to the street and coax the anxious- eyed dog to come to her.
Hannah tried a range of dog trust-getting tactics : she whistled, kiss-kissed into the air, sang out sweet soothing refrains of “come on, come on, it’s okay “ hoping against hope that her enamors would work.
Sure enough, after she tried, tried and tried again, the lure of her heart and soft, dark eyes captured the soul of the pooch, if only for a brief while.
She came to Hannah, like a lost child seeking safe haven, and plopped herself next to her new found friend on a soft patch of lawn.
And there sat Hannah, wondering what to do next.
The dog, which she nicknamed “Sweetie, ” sat amiably, bathing in the gentle warmth of the human hand on her back, a means of comfort for the stray and assurance of containment for the teen.
A call to Alameda Police did not go well, as the department was stuck with a hit and run investigation, a high priority call and a missing person report.
APD said that she could wait until an officer could be available, maybe a half an hour, maybe two and connected Hannah to an automated Animal Shelter line.
No one answered on the shelter’s end and the recorded message was of no value or comfort. No voice mail option availed.
Another call to APD informed Hannah that she could drop dog off at the Shelter’s location on Furtmann Street, miles away on the other side of the island. There was a dog drop box to leave Sweetie in, she was told.
It sounded like an option until she learned that she would have to wait at the drop box for an APD officer to show with a key. Time of an officer’s arrival: unknown.
More calls for higher priority APD responses had since come in.
Well over an hour had passed since Hannah had taken the dog into her hand and heart. By then, a neighbor brought by a bowl of water and some cat food for the Sweetie.
The sun was going down, temperature dropping as Sweetie blithely lapped up the water and snubbed the cat food, preferring deep green blades of lawn grass.
A neighborhood woman walking her two English Terriers crossed to the other side of the street to avoid dog to dog conflict and a possible bolt by Sweetie and said that she had seen the stray canine coming from the other side of the High Street bridge, “probably from the homeless encampment” she conjectured .
Sweetie had no collar and the owner, too, was most likely lost without such a companion.
Hannah thought back to the winter of 2018 when she noticed a small, wayward dog walking down Lincoln Avenue , brought it into her realm and began knocking on doors until local word got out to bring the chip embedded pooch back home.
But this time, it was all about low tech, high heart and pure strength of character for Hannah.
Time rolled by, another half hour, hitting the twighlight zone of the day, as APD was still doing its duty and Hannah called for another kind of backup, just like any teen in need.
She called Dad.
Minutes slid by until father showed, and faced plans A, B and C: Wait there even longer for the police, take the dog to the incommunicado shelter and wait some more , or let the dog go.
Hannah, of course, had a fourth option and dad and daughters quickly got on the same page.
They would take Sweetie into their car, into their home and into the next chapter of the dog’s unfolding set of circumstances in life and future in these times of trouble and need.
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