I waited for my breakfast to arrive, daydreaming while watching the cars race by from my window at a tiny country café. I noticed a little cocker spaniel mix across the highway, and my heart leaped with fear as the dog started to cross through the heavy traffic on the highway.
My first instinct was to run out outside and rescue her! With all the traffic and because she was taking her time, all I had time to do was pray that a car would not hit her.
Before I could take any action, by some miracle, that little pooch managed to avoid all the traffic and safely trotted into the café’s parking lot. A family in a minivan pulled into the café parking lot, and I knew the family had witnessed the event because a lady hopped out of the van and tried to coax the dog to come to her. The dog’s response was to tuck her tail, keep her eyes on the woman, and cautiously walk past her at a safe distance. As the dog passed my window, I could see that she was pregnant.
All I could think was, “Must rescue a pregnant dog!” Around that time, the waitress came by to fill my coffee, and I asked her if she had seen the dog. She said, “Oh sure, almost every day! She lives out in the woods somewhere and comes here to get fed each day.”
I was intrigued. The waitress confirmed that she was pregnant and said this was not her first litter. She said that waitresses, cooks, and customers had tried to get the dog to come to them, but she refused to let anyone touch her. When it came to food, she did tolerate being around humans, at least to snag what she needed. She had a method. Go to the kitchen door. Wait for someone to spot her. Back off and wait. Watch for one of the staff to come out with a plate full of scrambled eggs, sausage, or bacon. Wait for that person to leave and then eat. I thought that was quite an intelligent plan! The waitress said the dog also had a regular boyfriend who sometimes joined her for breakfast at the café, a tall, thin, friendly male that looked like a cross between a bird dog and a lab.
The waitress said that the dog’s food preferences changed to pancakes after she had the puppies. She refused eggs, bacon, or sausage and held out until someone brought her pancakes. The waitress guessed that the pancakes might be easier for her to carry back to her puppies. She had seen her carrying mouthfuls of pancakes off into the woods.
I asked her, “What happens to the puppies?” She explained that with the first litter they were aware of, the staff saw her with the puppies trying to get across the highway to the café. Sadly, a car hit and killed one of the puppies that day, but the waitresses captured the two remaining puppies. Their Momma watched the capture and then quietly went back into the woods. The waitress said, “It was the craziest thing…it was like she knew it was the best thing for them.”
With the next litter, the staff made a note of approximately when she delivered the puppies. After five weeks, they decided it was about time for the puppies to try to join their mom on her daily jaunt to the café, so they followed her. They heard the puppies yelping, and although it was a little early to take the puppies from mom, they did and found them good homes.
While listening to the interesting life of this little dog, my rescue instincts vanished.
If I were to name her, it would be Little Miss Independent because she had built herself a lifestyle that she enjoyed. She had freedom, a boyfriend, a place she loved to live, knew where to find food, fed her family pancakes, and when it was time, she let her puppies go so that they would have homes.
Who was I to intervene and change her lifestyle? I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be for her to adapt to what we humans perceive as the finest living standards for a dog; I could imagine her depressed if she was fenced in or lived as a house dog.
After listening to the waitress, I remembered something I had read about an elephant overpopulation problem in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Rather than thinning the herd by euthanizing some of the elephants, the park moved some of the adults. The females and calves would go to the Pilanesberg Park preserve.
Since matriarchs led the herds, the rangers decided it was best not to take the bull elephants along. So females and babies were all they relocated.
All was quiet on that reserve for twenty years until a rash of strange deaths began to occur to the park’s rhino population. In a very short time, 10% of the rhino population was attacked and killed, and because the rhino’s horns were still intact, poachers were obviously not responsible for the deaths. Who were these brutal culprits?
After investigation, the authorities discovered that a band of rogue adolescent male elephants was responsible for the rhino’s deaths. The rogues had even started harassing park visitors’ vehicles, and this behavior was disturbingly dangerous.
That elephant case was perplexing because this type of violence was not typical behavior for these gentle giants. After the rangers caught the rogue band in the act of harassing rhinos, they discussed euthanizing them. Thankfully, they hesitated until a wiser solution was offered.
With further study, the park officials realized that the young males were mating too soon and, as a result, experienced huge bursts of testosterone, which made them aggressive. These males had no role models or competition from mature bulls for mating rights. The rangers began to wonder what would happen if older bulls were reintroduced into that elephant society. They took action and relocated bulls into the elephant population.
Amazingly, when the mature bulls arrived, those teenage males stopped harassing the rhinos. The problem was solved without euthanizing the rouges. (click here to read the CBS news story The Delinquents)
My mind raced into realizations while watching Little Miss Independent trot back across the highway to her hidden home. She had a perfectly happy, well-rounded life. That little dog did not need rescuing, even though I felt that was the thing I was supposed to do. But was rescue the right solution for her?
We learned from the elephants that they have an obviously intelligent set of standards for family/society. That culture includes rules and guidelines governing appropriate behavior enforced very well by the elephants.
Fascinating! It also seemed like Little Miss Independent had created her vision of dog heaven on earth!
All of nature has rules that we have yet to comprehend fully.
I find it fascinating that we have made such fantastic advances, but we know so little about the inner workings of the beloved beings who inhabit this planet alongside us. Sometimes, if we try to intervene, we may have wonderful intentions, but we could disturb the natural rhythm of life and do harm.
After this lesson from a wise dog and rogue elephants, I want to become more observant because I realize that I have so much to learn from the wise creatures on our beautiful planet.
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