Woof!

SPCA brings puppies to Greenwich CT for Adoption!

The SPCA ‘s  adoption will take place on Sunday, August 9th from 11 a.m to 2 p.m. at 7 Strickland Road (Flowers by George) in Cos Cob, CT.  The puppies  were rescued from certain death in Southern shelters, and were transported to the SPCA of Westchester.  Two Greenwich animal lovers, Lisa Wysocki and Susan Maounis, of Greenwich CT have helped to underwrite the transport.

Adopters must be at least 21 years of age.  Adoption fees for dogs and puppies will be $325 which includes spay/neuter, pre-adopt vaccines and deworm, microchip and heart worm test (age appropriate).  Fees for cats will be $50 and kittens, $175 and will include spay/neuter, FIV/FELV test, pre-adopt vaccines and deworm.

For further information on the SPCA’s  Adoption Extravaganza, please visit www.spca914.org or call (914)941-2896 ext 22.

Here are some dogs who will be Greenwich, if they are not adopted first:

Bella, 7 months old. photo/SPCA

Buck, 1 year old. photo/SPCA

Scooby, 1 year old. photo/SPCA

I ‘m looking forward to this wonderful event.  See you there!

More than 90 dogs removed from Detroit-area home
DAVID RUNK,Associated Press Writer

A Chihuahua is shown in a travel kennel outside a home in Dearborn, Mich., Thursday, July 23, 2009. Law enforcement officials said a man kept more than 90 dogs, mostly Chihuahuas, locked inside the home. (AP Photo/David Runk)

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — A man kept more than 90 dogs — mostly Chihuahuas — in a suburban Detroit home that from the outside looked generally well kept but inside was filled with feces and trash, authorities said Thursday.

Neighbors in the past had complained of an odor, but this week was the first time Dearborn officials got inside. On Wednesday and Thursday, crews wearing masks to help them breathe carried dogs from the two-story home.

“There’s trash from floor to ceiling,” said Nick Siroskey, director of residential services for the city. “There’s feces and urine throughout the entire house. Basement, first level, second level.”

City workers, along with Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, removed 42 ailing and feces-covered dogs from the home Wednesday. They returned Thursday and found about 50 more dogs.

The 56-year-old man who was living in the house was taken to a local hospital for observation. His family, which lives in Florida, was involved in his care and cooperating with officials.

The man’s sister told officials that she believed he initially had two dogs in the home and that they may have reproduced, Siroskey said. Misdemeanor, animal cruelty charges were possible, but Siroskey said the man appears to have mental health issues that could be a factor in the case.

Outside, the lawn was neatly cut and the bushes were manicured. Neighbors and investigators said the smell of urine, noticeable from the street Thursday, may have been contained previously because windows were closed and covered.

“There was a little bit of a smell, but it was just like a … person that doesn’t keep their house up,” said Abe Baydoun. “He didn’t take care of himself, personally, but he took care of the outside of his house.”

Baydoun, 25, lives across the street and said he only had seen two of the man’s dogs outside.

“It just seemed like there was five or six,” he said.

Police Chief Ronald Haddad said officers found piles of feces and fleas inside the house. The dogs, which were being examined at the animal shelter, appear to have been unattended and were in various stages of health.

Crews pulled bags full of trash from the home to clear pathways inside, and dogs sat in cages outside before being taken to the shelter. The house was deemed unfit for human habitation and the city likely will seek to tear it down, Siroskey said.

On Friday, Siroskey said police were called to the home by a neighbor who spotted some kittens in a hole in the backyard, and the officer who responded reported that it seemed like there were many dogs inside.  Animal control authorities got the case and, after obtaining a warrant, investigators went inside Wednesday.

“Sometimes you have no clue how many pets are in a house,” Siroskey said.

Law enforcement officials search a home in Dearborn, Mich., Thursday, July 23, 2009. Authorities said a man kept more than 90 dogs, mostly Chihuahuas, locked inside the home. (AP Photo/David Runk)

___

Associated Press Writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.

NC puppy owner expedites surgery to remove 5th leg

In this photo taken on July 16, 2009, Lily, a Chihuahua terrier mix, that has fiveå legs, that was rescued by Allyson Siegel of Charlotte, N.C., licks a bowl. The Charlotte Observer reported Saturday that Siegel, 45, of Charlotte bought the puppy last week because she couldn't bear for the Chihuahua-terrier mix to be sold to a Coney Island, N.Y., sideshow that features disfigured animals. (AP Photo/The Charlotte Observer, Jeff Siner)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The new owner of a five-legged puppy says the dog has undergone surgery to remove the extra appendage.

Owner Allyson Siegel told WBTV that the amputation surgery was expedited early Thursday morning in part because a Coney Island animal show owner said he was the rightful owner of the dog. John Strong told The Charlotte Observer Wednesday that he planned to file a lawsuit over the matter, saying he had an agreement to buy the dog, Lilly, from a Gastonia man.

The New York man says his show contains “amazing animals, oddities and freaks.”

The dog’s former owner, Calvin Owensby, sold the Chihuahua-terrier pup to Siegel, who vowed to get the extra leg amputated so the dog can walk normally.

In this photo taken on July 16, 2009, Allyson Siegel of Charlotte, N.C. holds Lily, a Chihuahua terrier mix, that has five legs. The Charlotte Observer reported Saturday that Allyson Siegel, 45, of Charlotte bought the puppy last week because she couldn't bear for the Chihuahua-terrier mix to be sold to a Coney Island, N.Y., sideshow that features disfigured animals. (AP Photo/The Charlotte Observer, Jeff Siner)

Alma Rutgers has sent me this story of how her adopted dog, Nympha, found in Italy, came to live  in Greenwich CT.

Nympha at home in Greenwich

NYMPHA’S STORY
by Alma Rutgers
“There was this lovely little dog following our group,” Nancy tells me. “We were all charmed by her sweet nature.”

Nancy and I have been friends since we were both seven-years old growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut. We have remained close all these years in spite of the fact that Nancy, who married an Italian artist, has been living in Rome for more than forty years, while I have stayed in Greenwich. Nancy has her own business guiding tours in Italy. Her academic background is in archaeology and art history.

It was on one of her tours that Nancy encountered an abandoned reddish-brown and white spaniel mix. The little stray found Nancy who was guiding a group through the Gardens of Ninfa in the early fall of 2003.
“Then came this man with heavy yellow gloves.” Nancy continues the telling of  Nympha’s story. “He had thick rubber gloves and carried a long stick.”
Nancy describes the exchange that followed between her and the dogcatcher, describing this exchange as a Victorian melodrama.

“Where is the little dog?” shouts the sinister man with the yellow rubber gloves and a long stick.
“What little dog? Not this little dog.” Nancy shields the little dog that has been following her group and who now clings to Nancy, a pleading look in the frightened creature’s nut-brown eyes.
“Yes this little dog.”
“Where will you take her?”
“To the pound.”
“No!”
“Yes.”
“No!”
“Yes.”
“You can’t!”

Nancy rescued the little dog from certain death by promising the dogcatcher that she will take the stray back with her to Rome. Nancy, an animal lover, would rescue all the stray animals in the world if she could. If she were very rich, that’s what she would do with all her money, she has told me.

Nancy named the little dog Nympha after the Gardens of Ninfa, where Nympha found Nancy. The Giardini di Ninfa are beautiful gardens in the Lazio region of Italy, about 40 miles south-east of Rome. Here a wild abundance of flowers and trees grows amidst the abandoned ruins of a deserted medieval city. In describing the gardens, Nancy mentioned huge cypress trees and bamboo groves. Crystal clear springs, filtered through limestone, flow into the gardens from the base of the surrounding mountains, then cascading into a river. In Roman times, the springs were dedicated to the nymphs and the river was once called Nymphaeus.

I met Nympha some weeks after her rescue, at the end of November 2003, when I came to visit Nancy in Rome. Although extremely friendly, she was a timid and insecure little dog. She had a very sweet face, white markings on the left of her snout and black markings on the right, with expressive eyes – nut-brown eyes, as Nancy calls them. I fell in love with her.

Nympha's nut brown eyes

By then Nancy was looking for a permanent home for Nympha. Because Nancy is so often away from Rome on her tours, she could not keep Nympha in her apartment indefinitely. She had originally thought Nympha would find a home in Fiano Romano, a small town north of Rome where Nancy’s artist husband has his studio. But there was a German shepherd in Fiano who attacked Nympha, making it impossible for Nympha to stay there.
After calling home to check with my husband, I offered to give Nympha a home. And so, Nympha arrived in America a month later, in December, when Nancy came to the United States to visit her father at Christmas. Nancy and Nympha came straight from JFK to our house in Greenwich.
Nympha arrived in our living room, frightened and disoriented as she emerged from the traveling cage to which she had been confined since leaving Rome. She had spent the flight from Rome to New York in a heated, pressurized section of the plane’s baggage compartment. She had been through so much in the few short months since finding Nancy in the Gardens of Ninfa.

Alma and Nympha

At first, she wouldn’t let Nikki, our Siberian husky, come anywhere near her. She cowered and growled. But Nikki, who always loved other dogs, would just look at her as if to say, “ Get over it.” Nikki was patient, and eventually Nympha warmed up to him, drawing much strength from him, continually gaining in self-confidence. They became a loving odd couple: Nikki pure bred, elegant, aristocratic; Nympha a strangely proportioned little mutt with a body that is too big for her head.
Nikki died this past March at age thirteen, and now Nympha, whose age is unknown, but who is believed to be between seven and eight, is top dog in our house. She spends her days on the front steps guarding the house and running up and down the front lawn, barking, when she spots a potential intruder.
Sometimes I look at her and marvel at this sweet little dog that managed to find her way from the Italian Gardens of Ninfa, where she was homeless six years ago, to America and the home that she now so carefully guards as her very own in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Nympha's happy ending.

Charlotte Dequeker and Cookie, athletes.

Cookie is about to run his first doggy duathlon.  The sleek golden retriever has been running with his family all his young life – he will be 2 years old in November-and  he loves to go for runs. That is not surprising, because his owner Charlotte Dequeker, from Greenwich CT, is also a serious runner. She has conquered the New York City marathon twice, and the Boston once, and  as a triathlete, has weathered the NYC triathlon 3 times, and just did her first Ironman in France this June. She  found in Cookie a kindred soul.  Cookie has been running with Charlotte’s husband Raphael, a pastry chef at the Greenwich restaurant Valbella, every morning, and with her every evening.   Even their sons Kelian, 12, Bastian 10, and Titouan 8, love to race around with Cookie.

Cookie gets in the grove, Charlotte said. “It looks like he gets into a zone where only the running matters.  He has a very concentrated look on his face and can keep going forever, even though he is not the fastest.”

So when she saw the announcement from Nautica New York City Triathlon, about the July 26 Doggie Dash, it was a no brainer to sign up.  “Here was a way  to enjoy two of my favorite things: racing and being with my dog,” she explained.

The 9th Annual Nautica NYC Triathlon attracts 3,400 athletes who will swim .9321 miles,  in the Hudson River, along Manhattan’s West Side,  bike 24.85 miles, and run 6.2 miles. They claim to be the only Olympic-distance triathlon in New York City.

The dogs, however,  are treated to a much kinder run. The Iams Doggie Dash, which is in its second year, is 5 miles long and ends  in Central Park with all the triathletes under the finish structure.  Each mile, the dogs must stop for a mandatory exam by veterinarians. There is also a check with the veterinarians the day before the race  to make sure that the dogs would be ok to run.

The prize for the winning dog/runner is a fire hydrant.  I guess this is for the NYC dogs, who would appreciate having one of their own. But quite possibly, Cookie will get, winning or not, some kind of delicious treat from the pastry chef Raphael, Charlotte and his family.

Charlotte and Cookie on a run.

Doesn’t happen every day.  Especially one who still needs a pouch. Here’s a story from Louisiana.

La. menagerie keeper adds ‘roo pouch to outfits
JANET McCONNAUGHEY,Associated Press Writer

This June 11, 2009 photo released by the Global Wildlife Center shows Christina Cooper, manager of Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, La., holding Skippy, a 6-month-old red kangaro0.

FOLSOM, La. (AP) — Christina Cooper has been wearing a kangaroo lately — a foundling named Skippy, who was rejected by his mother at a wildlife park in eastern Louisiana.

Inside a canvas carryall over Cooper’s shoulder is an artificial kangaroo pouch for the 6-month-old red kangaroo.

It’s demanding duty — Skippy must be bottle fed every four hours, though he’s starting to eat grass and other green stuff.

Workers at Global Wildlife Center in Folsom found the joey, as young ‘roos are called, on the ground May 13 in the area where about 40 red kangaroos live.

Cooper, one of the park’s two animal care specialists, waited about 90 minutes, hoping the mother would pick it up.

“That was really hard just to watch,” Cooper said. “But the adults were really not interested in him. Nobody came to claim him.”

He was probably about 4 months old and utterly helpless.

Though adult red kangaroos can grow more than 6 feet tall, a newborn joey is about the size of a jelly bean. Eyeless, earless, all but skinless and with only buds where its hind legs will be, a newborn hauls itself into its mother’s pouch. There, the “pouch embryo” clamps its mouth onto a teat. It cannot even open its mouth for about a month, and usually stays attached for about six months.

Cooper doesn’t know how or why Skippy came out of his mother’s pouch. A female that is stressed or chased by a predator may expel a joey, Cooper said. But the Folsom reserve keeps no carnivores on its 900-acre property north of New Orleans.

When he was found, Skippy weighed a bit more than a pound. His head was smaller than a man’s thumb.

This June 8, 2009 photo released by the Global Wildlife Center shows Skippy, a red kangaroo joey, almost a month after he was found, rejected by his mother, in the kangaroo enclosure at a wildlife tourist attraction in Folsom, La. Christina Cooper, manager of Global Wildlife Center, is using a kangaroo feeding nipple without a hole in it as a pacifier, and teaching Skippy how to hold it. (AP Photo/Global Wildlife Center)

Hairless at first, Skippy began to grow gray fur. Now, some of that fur is showing traces of the reddish-brown that gives the species its name.

Cooper had never hand-raised a wild animal before, let alone a kangaroo. She started with a call to a friend at the Baton Rouge Zoo, some urgent Internet research, a rush order for “The Complete Guide to The Care of Macropods” — a scientific name that translates roughly as “hugefoot” — and an e-mail to its author, Lynda Staker, an Australian kangaroo rescuer.

“I had read previously that the best way to regulate the body temperature in an animal that young is to wear them. Put them close to your skin, inside your clothes,” Cooper said.

So she turned a sweatshirt into an impromptu pouch and wore it inside another shirt and a warm fleece jacket. “That’s pretty unbearable in May in Louisiana,” she said.

As soon as she had the jacket on, she drove Skippy to the Baton Rouge Zoo, where the zoo’s veterinarian mixed a batch of powdered milk substitute and cleaned the baby.

The Baton Rouge Zoo also provided an emergency supply of kangaroo milk replacer, tiny bottles and the long, flexible nipples needed for kangaroos. Cooper ordered more from Wombaroo, an Australian company that makes milk replacement for domestic animals, marsupials and zoo animals.

She wore Skippy and extra clothes for two days, sitting in an armchair to sleep. Arrival of an incubator let her return to a single shirt, but she still had to feed Skippy every two hours.

After 12 days in the incubator, Skippy lived in pouches sent by Staker. He had to stay on his back, with his feet near his head, to ensure normal development of hind leg tendons and muscles.

Now weighing about 3 pounds, he took his first wobbly steps June 30, and his first hops July 4. In about two or three months, he’ll be at the age when red kangaroos leave the pouch for good.

“We’re really at a stage where he’s growing by leaps and bounds,” said Cooper.

This June 11, 2009 photo released by the Global Wildlife Center shows Skippy, a 6-month-old red kangaroo foundling looking out of his artificial pouch at a wildlife tourist attraction in Folsom, La. When he was found in the kangaroo enclosure at Global Wildlife Center, he was hairless and helpless, unable even to turn over. (AP Photo/Global Wildlife Center)

This June 11, 2009 photo released by the Global Wildlife Center shows Skippy, a 6-month-old red kangaroo foundling at a wildlife tourist attraction in Folsom, La. (AP Photo/Global Wildlife Cente

Did you ever want to fly with your pet in the cabin?  Now there is an airline who specializes in that.  It is called Pet Airways.  Here is a story from the Associated Press:

In this photo made Thursday, July 9, 2009, Pet Airways Co-founder Alysa Binder's dog, Zoe, walks by one of the upstart airline's aircraft in Omaha, Neb. On the first-ever all-pet airline started by husband-and-wife team Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel, dogs and cats will fly in the main cabin of a Suburban Air Freight plane, retooled and lined with carriers in place of seats. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

Pet Airways' Alyse Tognotti prepares a canine passenger for his flight during a training session in Omaha, Neb.. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

NEW YORK (AP) – One trip for their Jack Russell terrier in a plane’s cargo hold was enough to convince Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel that owners needed a better option to get their pets from one city to another.

On Tuesday, the first flight for the husband-and-wife team’s Pet Airways, the first-ever all-pet airline, took off from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, N.Y.

All commercial airlines allow a limited number of small pets to fly in the cabin. Others must travel as checked bags or in the cargo hold—a dark and sometimes dangerous place where temperatures can vary wildly.

Binder and Wiesel used their consulting backgrounds and business savvy to start Pet Airways in 2005. The last four years have been spent designing their fleet of five planes according to new four-legged requirements, dealing with FAA regulations and setting up airport schedules.

The two say they’re overwhelmed with the response. Flights on Pet Airways are already booked up for the next two months.

Pet Airways will fly a pet between five major cities—New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles. The $250 one-way fare is comparable to pet fees at the largest U.S. airlines.

For owners the big difference is service. Dogs and cats will fly in the main cabin of a Suburban Air Freight plane, retooled and lined with carriers in place of seats. Pets (about 50 on each flight) will be escorted to the plane by attendants that will check on the animals every 15 minutes during flight. The pets are also given pre-boarding walks and bathroom breaks. And at each of the five airports it serves, the company has created a “Pet Lounge” for future fliers to wait and sniff before flights.

The company will operate out of smaller, regional airports in the five launch cities, which will mean an extra trip for most owners dropping off their pets if they are flying too. Stops in cities along the way means the pets will take longer to reach a destination than their owners.

A trip from New York to Los Angeles, for example, will take about 24 hours. On that route, pets will stop in Chicago, have a bathroom break, play time, dinner, and bunk for the night before finishing the trip the next day.

Amanda Hickey of Portland, Ore. is one of the new airline’s first customers. Her seven-year-old terrier-pinscher mix Mardi and 2-year-old puggle Penny are taking their first flight soon.

Hickey said the service was a welcome alternative to flying her dogs in cargo when she transplants them from her soon-to-be Denver home to Chicago to stay while she and her fiance travel to Aruba to get married.

“For a little bit more money, I have peace of mind,” she said.

It was a stressful experience in a cargo hold that spurred Binder and Wiesel to start their airline. Their Jack Russell terrier, Zoe, flew once in cargo and Binder said they worried about how the dog was doing, but were unable to check on her or get information. The couple soon started looking for a better solution.

“One time in cargo was enough for us,” Binder said, walking through an airplane hangar as Zoe trotted in front of her. “We wanted to do something better.”

The company, which will begin with one flight in each of its five cities, is looking to add more flights and cities soon. In the next three years, Binder hopes to fly to 25 locations.

Among the big U.S. carriers that offer pet services, AirTran, Spirit, Southwest and JetBlue only allow pets to fly in the cabin. Most U.S. airlines charge between $100 and $125, but Delta and Northwest charge $150 for cabin trips. AirTran is the cheapest among big carriers at $69.

The charge is more to fly in the cargo or check-baggage holds. Delta and Northwest are the most expensive at $275. Alaska Airlines and Midwest charge the least, at $100. Frontier prices its checked pets fees between $100 and $200 and only takes pets as checked baggage.

Anne Banas, executive editor of SmartTravel.com, questions the viability of an airline with such a specific niche.

“I’m not sure how sustainable it is,” she said. “But if people are trying to go for a first-class service, it could make sense.”

She said the service’s popularity could spike in peak summer or winter months when airlines in some areas don’t allow pets to travel.

Betsy Saul, co-founder of Petfinder.com, which has ranked the pet-friendliness of airlines for three years, said she’s excited about the expected impact Pet Airways will have on pet travel across major airlines.

“The entire industry will stretch because of Pet Airways,” she said. “It’s a challenge that says ‘let’s make this (experience) better for pets.’”

Dan Wiesel, CEO of Pet Airways, embraces a canine passenger at Pet Airways in East Farmingdale.(AP Photo/Yanina Manolova)

Did your dog ever eat your homework?  Mine once munched on my cell phone – try explaining that to my boss!   Here’s a young man whose dog did something similar.  Was Sunshine hungry -  or maybe she just wanted Jon to stay at home?

Jon Meir of Eau Claire with his golden retriever Sunshine and the munched passport.

Jon Meier of Eau Claire, Wis. displays  June 26, 2009 the passport his golden retriever Sunshine, left, chewed 20 minutes before he left on a trip to Peru earlier in June with fellow Eau Claire North High School Spanish students.  Officials would not let him board the international flight at Miami because of what they described as a “mutilated” passport. (AP Photo/Eau Claire Leader-Telegram/Dan Reiland) (AP Photo/Eau Claire Leader-Telegram/Dan Reiland)

Mischief is all over the world. Here’s one from Australia.

Australia Wallabies getting into the poppies

In this undated photo provided by Wirrimbirra Flora and Fauna Sanctuary, a red neck wallaby stands in an enclosure on the grounds of the sanctuary in Bargo, Australia. Wallabies snacking in Tasmania’s opium poppy fields are getting “high as a kite” and hopping around circles, trampling the crops, a state official said Wednesday, June 24, 2009. (AP Photo/Wirrimbirra Flora and Fauna Sanctuary)

Do you have a pet who gets  in trouble?  Let us know and I will put it in Woof.    email: helen.neafsey@scni.com

This is a true story that I retold for Greenwich Time Neighbors Section last year.  I thought it would be appropriate for the Fourth of July.

Last year Anne Budner, 91, and her daughter Jeannette Zboray, of Byram CT, sat around the family dining room table looking at photographs taken during World War II of John Vojt, Budner’s brother. With Memorial Day around the corner, it was not unusual to think back on the brave soldier who fought in the war. One aspect in the photo album, however, was quite unusual. The photographs were not just of John and the boys overseas.  Many included a young dog. Budner and Zboray would go on to recount the dog’s amazing story.

GI John Vojt and his friend Pluto, 1943

Her name was Pluto. She was a hungry Kelpie Shepherd puppy, down on her luck, hanging around an American training camp in Australia. The year was 1943.

One day at the camp, a young soldier, John Vojt, from Byram, CT,  happened to be in the mess hall eating his lunch.  He looked down and saw a small scrawny puppy looking up at him, wagging her tail, watching him eat.  How could he resist.  So John gave Pluto some of his lunch.  Pluto knew a good man when she saw one,  so she turned up again for dinner, and and then for breakfast. Soon John’s every meager meal was shared with the Pluto. (Apparently Pluto belonged to a lieutenant who just didn’t have the time to care for her.) John spoke with the lieutenant, and after some quiet words, the puppy was his.

Pluto followed John everywhere he went, and John, in turn, adored her. Soon, the family back in the states were hearing about Pluto in every letter.  Back in Byram,  his family began sending dog biscuits with the packages going to John. They loved the photographs of John and Pluto.

When war broke out in the South Pacific, Vojt, who was trained in anti-aircraft, was sent to the Admiralty Islands, and then New Guinea.  Pluto, of course, came too.

In New Guinea, Pluto had puppies. John sent back this photo of him with Pluto and her pups  proudly labeled :

Me and the Missus

Beside motherhood, Pluto had many adventures.  She became the heroine of his division when she killed a huge snake in the jungle that could have hurt or killed John and his buddies. She learned how to keep still while in the jungle, so the enemy would not know where the Americans were hiding. Little known to the two of them, this particular talent would become very important in the future.

Pluto, John and friend in New Guinea

After 39 months of service, Vojt, now a Sargent, had earned enough points to be discharged from the Army. He could leave New Guinea, and come home.  The bad news was that Pluto had to stay behind. An officer in charge in New Guinea said that she did not have her inoculations and would not be allowed to come with him.

The sad day arrived when the loading boat came to take John to the transport ship.  He was devastated,leaving his faithful friend behind.  After a tearful good-bye to Pluto, he boarded the boat, still looking back at Pluto.   Pluto remained on the dock watching John. She had always gone everywhere he went . . .

Suddenly, Pluto was up and running. She flew down the dock, and with a flash, she jumped into the water, and  began swimming to the loading boat.

Vojt and his friends pulled Pluto from the water. Bringing his dog close to him, he tenderly dried her off and covered her up.  All the other men on the boat kept silent about this new passenger.  And, of course, having been trained, Pluto did not bark.
Somehow, possibly by putting her in his large duffle bag, Vojt managed to slip her up onto the transport ship, and the two friends now were now headed across the Pacific Ocean to the United States.

When the ship reached San Francisco, CA,  the admiral admitted that he knew all along about the stow-away.  But he warned John that he wasn’t in the clear yet and that the dog would find major roadblocks along the way.

But John’s luck — and Pluto’s — held. After he and the dog disembarked, Vojt   surreptitiously brought her through the army depot checkout and onto an eastbound train across the United States.  So far so good. He even was able to take her outside during a stop in Colorado so Pluto could see her first snow.

Three thousand miles or so later, John and his dog arrived safely at Fort Devens, MA where he was discharged.
Now all Vojt and Pluto had to do was to get back to Byram, CT.  All went well, until they came to a Stamford CT-bound train. The conductor took one look at Pluto and scowled. “Absolutely not,” the he said, looking at the dog.  “ No dogs allowed on the train.”

The rest of the passengers in that car looked up to see this tall (6-feet), thin  GI and his faithful, shepherd dog.  “BOO!” they shouted, and fussed and carried on until the conductor, out numbered, relented.

At last, the two veterans had made it home — together. The family in Byram, including Vojt’s sister Anne and niece Jeannette, welcomed them both with hugs and kisses.

That night John slept in his own comfortable bed, with his faithful Pluto happily curled up, as she always had, nearby. And for the rest of Pluto’s life, she remained faithfully by his side.

Semper Fedelis