I finally made it back to Baltimore! I must say it was not all easy but it sure was fun and exciting. I am so glad I was able to see so many different parts of the country.
I started off the day setting off from Cleveland. I set my GPS to head toward Canton, OH to a shelter called Angels for Animals. I had arranged to pickup a dog that needed transport from Ohio to Virginia with the National English Shepherd Rescue. It took me about 1 hour and 30 minutes to get there from Cleveland. When I got to the shelter it took them awhile to figure out which dog I was transporting. I told them “Bear” but I should have specified “Mr. Bear” because apparently there were using variations of the name Bear. I was at the shelter for almost 1 hour before the dog was placed in a crate and then into my car and set off to head back home. Mr. Bear was clearly scared and not Instead of my having to drive to Virginia to drop the dog off I was going to meet the person who was going to foster the dog in Hagerstown, MD. It was a convenient place to stop along I-70 on my way back home.
In the car the dog was quiet. He came from a hoarding situation with 19 other dogs in deplorable conditions. The person at Angels for Animals told me he had not had much human contact but he had come a long way. I talked with the dog for awhile told him about myself and where we were going. Then I put in the last tapes I had of the Bourne Series “The Bourne Supremacy” to keep myself entertained and the dog used to human voices. I drove the 4+ hours to Hagerstown without stopping much for myself. I did pull over once on the side of the road to keep because the dog was getting anxious and pawing at the crate. I opened the crate door careful to not let him out. To my surprise he let me pet him and he even almost put his head on my lap when I was sitting in the car next to the crate with the door open. I could tell the dog was trying to feel comfortable but was unsure of what was going on. I stopped again only for a few minutes to let myself have a snack and let Mr. Bear know everything was going to be ok.
I thought this would be an easy drop-off… I was wrong. I got into Hagerstown around 4:30pm. I felt I had made good time. Bonnie, the lady was going to foster Mr. Bear didn't seem to be around the Cracker Barrel. So I waited for awhile and tried to comfort the dog as much as I could. I wanted to let him know how much he was going to be going to a nice place. I finally texted Bonnie and she got out of her Lexus and walked over to me. She had parked in a different area of the parking lot and just hadn't seen me pull in. I then preceded to tell her about how Mr. Bear was good in the car, what the shelter people told me about him, and gave her the paperwork on him. She saw the crate and exclaimed “How am I going to get that in my car?” she was not enthusiastic about transporting Bear, as I called him, in the crate in her car. I assumed he could be transported without it but said, “The shelter said to not let him out of the crate.” She was intent on getting him out of the crate and into her backseat with a dog hammock. Since I actually thought at that time that she was adopting him, I let her pull him out of the crate. Soon after we got him out of the crate he started freaking out and pulling on the leash… then… he slipped out of his collar! It was ridiculously loose and really not for handling a dog. He started running around the parking lot and I was frantically chasing him around. After a few minutes of chasing him down I finally managed to catch him. I was holding in him in a hug and was letting him know “It's going to be ok!” at this point he seemed to have calmed down. Bonnie then walked up and I handed her my keys, “Here go get my car and we will put him in the crate.” She for some reason did not like this and did not want to get my car. She then tried to put the collar and leash on Bear and he freaked out again… and bite her. Bear then was running around the parking lot again. I asked Bonnie “Are you ok?” but honestly was more concerned with the dog. I was extremely angry because I had Bear! Wtf? I then followed him all over the area. He crossed the street into a Park & Ride and was running around the bushes. I followed him for about 30-40 minutes then he went into some bushes and I couldn't find him. I tried combing through some of them but just lost sight of him.
I washed my headlights with the sqeeue for windshields. They were incredible dirty because of the bugs hitting the front of the car. Difficult to even see out of them.
After I drove around the Hagetsown Outlet Mall for awhile.
Later when I was driving home I was immensely upset. I couldn't believe I had lost the dog. I stopped to get some gas before heading back and got stopped in at Subway in the gas station. I got a Meatball Marinara 12 inch sandwich for $4 because they were having a special that day. It felt like one of the best sandwiches I had ever had. I don't think it was that good, but I just needed something that made me a feel a little better.
