About 3 weeks ago, i started seeing this dog on the river path or in the wash as i was walking in the morning. She's a shy dog or a fearful one and skitters away (can canines skitter?) immediately. After several days i started talking to this runner about the dog and he said its been living in the wash for about a month and its got a collar on but he's not been able to get close enough to catch it.
This dog has become the casual but constant talk of the group of us pre-dawn walkers. We'll nod hello as we pass and then whisper "see her?" One morning after a bitter cold and rainy and windy night (a foot of snow on Mt.Lemmon) the scuttlebutt of the river trail-ers was that the dog was probably dead (there are also coyotes that roam and stalk the river bed). And then lo and behold, there she is a couple of mornings later, looking healthier than i felt.!
Signs were put up at frequent locations with a picture of the dog exhorting any sighters to call IMMEDIATELY and 3 different cell phones were listed. This morning i came across a gal calling each of the 3 cell phone numbers with no one answering! and then at the end of my walk - there was the husband of a couple walking after the dog in the wash (without luck).
Since the dog has a collar, I assume the human owners placed it there and why aren't they missing their dog? Maybe the dog ran away from home because it was an abusive environment or the owner was a drug addict and cocaine dealer or maybe the dog got romantically involved with a neighbor dog who moved away and she got so heartsick she thought she'd commit suicide by starving and living outdoors in the dry Rillito River.
What does she eat?
and maybe the dog loves living in the wash. she can poop wherever she wants, has no set dinner hour, can bark at the sight of the full moon, doesn't have to be talked down to in doggie cutesy squeaks and doesn't have to be manhandled and prodded by the grandkids.
If the dog gets caught, she'll probably end up in a cage at the Humane Society; living in a steel edged space that is barely bigger than her body; crammed into a building with tens and tens of other canines and some of them being from the wrong side of the street (wash?) No wonder she stays in the wash.
