Howard and Honey...Ohhh, the Drama!

I just can't write more. This is a letter I sent to a beloved radio host at WGN. The best part? The Poops are gonna be alright!


Hi King John,

I know that the story has been covered, and by the time you read this it will be old copy. But what isn't being told is, in it's way... more important. And it's my Bright Side for the rest of the year.
......

When I got home from the grocery around noon there were two dogs running loose on my street. I live on Howard Beach in Rogers Park. A new neighbor I had never met was coming out with her two dogs and the strays came to say hello and then ran down to the beach. I called another neighbor and good friend, 'Reva' to come to the window to see if she recognized the dogs. She didn't but came out anyway. By then, the strays had gone onto the ice and the new neighbor (Shannon) pulled one of her dogs (Ghost) out of her truck to take to the beach as 'bait'.... her thought being that since the strays had already played with the dog, they might come off the ice.


Shannon

Instead, they fell in. First the Pitbull and then the Shepherd. Next thing I knew, Ghost was in and the last thing I saw as I dialed 911 and turned away (not being able to watch) was three dogs in the water- only heads out, facing different directions and Shannon going in to just below her neck and Reva right behind her.

The 911 operator was fast,sent the call to fire, came back on with me and when she asked me to verify how many people were in the water, I turned to see all of them out. Shannon had literally hurled the dogs to Reva, who was in to her knees and Reva helped Shannon out. We cancelled 911.

...........
It's what happened next that is my Bright Side.

We put the dogs in my vestibule. That's the picture you see everywhere. I took it thinking to put it on fliers. Shannon had gone in with Ghost to take a cold shower, the police were here and we called Animal control, who couldn't be here until 5 p.m. That turned out to be a blessing.

What to do with these dogs? And, John... they were the sweetest creatures. When Shannon came out of the shower she joined us in the vestibule... and though they loved Reva (all animals do) and found me tolerable, they seemed to know Shannon had saved them. They were all over her.

Reva and I both have dogs, so they couldn't stay with us. We considered bunking our dogs together in one apartment and bringing the strays into the other, but it didn't seem feasible. Our realty company said we could put them in the downstairs storage room, gave us collars from the building owner's dog.... we used our dog's leashes and got them down there. Reva found them a blanket and set up food and water.

And we're still waiting for Animal Control.

.........

Since the female was a Pitt, we knew she didn't have a hope in hell. We called several places and were turned away. Reva was antsy about finding the owners. I thought about fliers but my printer was broken and Reva is not technically savvy. But. She. Can. Talk.

Out she went, in this cold and she spoke to everyone she met on the street. The next thing I knew a woman we had never met offered to make fliers from work. Her boss insisted and within 30 minutes she drove up with 75 copies in hand.

Another neighbor offered money for dog food or whatever since she was too exhausted from her job to help us put up the fliers.

Someone else begged us not to send the dogs to Animal Control, an idea we hated anyway... and offered to sleep with them in her storage room for the night.

A neighbor in our building came home to the fracas and said if we would give him time to warm up, he would help us put up fliers.

Someone else suggested the Bark Bark Club as a possible haven.

Reva went to strangers, store owners, friends... and what was motivating her (and me) was that she didn't want to give them to Animal Control.

The neighbor who offered to put up fliers found the owners. We had had several reports of people seeing a man take the collars off the dogs and walking away. Our neighbor found those people. It was verified by their neighbors that the dogs were theirs, but they vehemently denied it. Our neighbor went into their apartment and then came to me saying, "It is not a good place. The dogs can't go back there.".

...............

Once the person said she would take the dogs for the night, we called Animal Control off, but the woman reneged and we sat here, listening to the strays howling up through my floorboards (the storage room is below my apartment). It was apparent we were going to have to do something.

We called the police station and the woman who answered said we could bring the dogs, but that they would be put in cages in an un-warmed area, and hoped we would wait. Now what?

Well, they stayed in the storage room. And Reva went down periodically throughout the night to sit with them and play. I got a little bit of sleep, but she didn't. We found out later that another neighbor who had not been here for the experience also went down to be with them.
..........

I woke at 6:30 this morning to the sound of barking under my bed. I laid there looking at the lake and thinking, 'today we have to take them, probably to their death's' and there was nothing I could do.

And then Reva called. The Bark Bark Club would take them, if we could get them there. By 8:45 we had them hooked up and in the back of my car.

I remember looking over as I was driving to see the Pitt... now named Honey, with her head on Reva's shoulder and I remember 'Howard' as he is now known, coming up to lick me at a stoplight.

The rest is history.
.............

But no one is talking about a neighborhood mobilized.... about people, who after a long day at work gave what they could to save two dogs most of them had never met.

Rogers Park gets lots of bad press, and rightfully so. But on one day, for just enough hours, good hearts won out. The few seconds it took that man to take the collars off of those dogs and send them to possible death, were balanced by hours of extremity, concern and certainty by so many good people that had no agenda but that our two little rescues had a chance.

Please don't let this story go, John.

I'm including a picture I took this morning of our door....they are 'Honey's' paw prints as she tried to get to me. It's haunting, somehow.




Thanks for reading,

Robin