Category: Furry Friends

A Cat Called Bump

On By ChristopherIn Furry Friends3 Comments

I recently shared with you all a story about Allie, a dog I trained in the pound rescue program. Now here’s one for all my cat readers.

The pound rescue program periodically received cats, and I had been juggling the idea for months about making a move into the cat section. Eventually I decided I’d spend a year caring for the cats, partly to mix things up, and partly because I’ve always been a cat lover at heart.

I grew up with cats. So when good fortune arose to care for the strays and newborn kittens that the pound sent in, I jumped at the opportunity. I had spent the previous decade training dogs, and I thought this would be a fun change. The program had several cat handlers, and my move from the dog universe to the cat world drew frowns from the dog guys and praise from the cat guys.

Cats are a world apart from dogs. Dogs yearn to be around you; cats yearn to be around you when they’re in the mood. Dogs will eat just about anything (dog food, people food, flip-flops); cats, they eat what they tell you they will eat. Dogs happily play with other stray dogs, but put a bunch of stray cats in a room, and you have a recipe for Fight Night.

Most of the time caring for the cats involved bottle feeding newborn kittens and then potty training them. The cats stayed here until they reached two pounds, and then they were placed for adoption through the pounds website. A wonderful thing about cats is that they are very independent. You rarely need to bathe them (they groom themselves) or tend to a half dozens other things that dogs require. Once they’re a couple of months old and potty trained, you can let them run wild–they’ll be fine.

The program administrator was a wonderful woman named Ms. Campbell. She loved animals. She came to work daily with new and exciting stories about one or more of the cats or dogs she owned (and did not own, for she took care of a number of strays: cats, a dog, a turtle, a duck, and I’m pretty sure there was a raccoon in the mix, too). She once told me that the rescue program was the one thing that kept her coming to work every day. Without it, she’d just assume quit.

Shortly after I started caring for the cats, she took me aside one day and told me about a stray cat she had taken in. It lived in her garage most of the time, she had said, or under her car when it was parked outside. She lived in the countryside and was always coming upon stray animals. I asked her why she didn’t simply let the cat into the house; after all, she had other stray cats she let inside.

“Oh, eww,” she said.

“Eww?” I said.

“Oh, you should see it. It has issues. It’s missing patches of fur all over, and its fur is all knotted and mangy.”

“It probably has some skin issues, that’s all,” I said. “It probably needs a topical and a good shampooing. Hell, it could be allergies.”

“It’s always scratching and”–she quivered, stuck out a puking tongue–“I think it has fleas, and ticks.”

“Aww, the poor thing,” I said. I was a bit surprised at her reluctance. She was never shy getting down and dirty with the dogs or cats we had running around here. She wore dog slobber and cat hair on her clothes daily like a badge of honor! She was always spending her own money on dog and cat flea shampoos, toys, leashes, collars, and you name it, for the cats and dogs here in the program. Yet, she was hesitant to get involved with this cat. Hmm, I thought, ‘Tis a bit of a mystery, this cat.

So I said, “Why don’t you bring it in and I’ll flea dip it, clean its ears, and treat whatever skin issues it has. I’ll also get all the ticks.

She shook her head. “Yeah, that’s a great idea-NOT! I’m not letting it into my car.”

“Take one of the cat carriers home from the pound then,” I said. “Put the cat into the carrier and bring it in that way.”

“Okay, maybe. But the cat’s crazy; you’ll never be able to give it a bath.”

I gave her a look that said yeah right.

“No, seriously,” she said. “It’s mean.”

“It’s a cat,” I said. “Not an 80 pound pit bull. Besides, what’s its name?”

“I haven’t named it.”

“You haven’t named it?”

“It’s just…eww.” She quivered again.

“I’ll think of one then,” I said, more puzzled than ever. “Just bring the cat in. Let me get it cleaned up; it’s probably suffering! Those fleas and ticks and all.”

A week passed before the subject of the cat came up again. I had spent the week caring for bottle feeders-kittens so young that their eyes weren’t open yet. It was an exhausting task. You had to feed them formula every two hours using tiny baby bottles, potty them, and make sure they were set until the next feeding. This of course involved getting up at night every two hours amongst so many other things. It wasn’t uncommon for these young newborns to die before being able to eat on their own. Caring for bottle feeders was stressful, and the thought of one dying on me kept me vigilantly awake at night. I had long forgotten about my conversation with Ms. Campbell. Hell, all I could think of was the sleep I wanted.

Then one afternoon Ms. Campbell arrived at the block looking haggard and worried. The moment she entered I knew something was wrong.

“Christopher,” she said. She was discreetly motioning for me to come to her. “I ran the cat over,” she whispered.

“What?!” I said. “Is it okay?”

“I think so,” she said, still whispering. “It’s not limping or making sounds like it’s in pain. It’s eating and it still meows at me through the garage door.”

“You checked the cat, right? Felt around to see if it was hurt?”

She looked around the day room to make sure no one was listening. Her shame was palpable.

“Yeah, I checked; it didn’t seem to be in pain.”

“Okay,” I said. Now tell me how it happened.”

“I was backing down the driveway and I ran something over and—”

“You actually felt a bump?”

“Yeah, right over it”–she skipped one palm over the other to illustrate–“it’s a big cat.”

I started laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“I just thought of a name for the cat,” I said. “Bump.”

“Bump?” A quizzical look crossed her face.

“Yeah. It’s short for ‘Speed Bump’.”

Her mouth fell open and her hands immediately found her hips. For a moment I thought she was going to scold me! Instead, she started laughing.

“Bring the cat in,” I said, “and I’ll make sure it’s fine and I’ll get it cleaned up.”

“Okay,” she said.

What was this cat? I thought. I’ve never heard of a cat getting run over and surviving. By the time evening came, I had convinced myself that she had imagined running the cat over. It just didn’t make sense. Either way, I was excited. Partly because I was eager to see this cat, and partly because I knew the cat was dear to her, despite her aversion to it. I was determined to get her cat in order, even if it was a stray that lived under her car.

The next day Ms. Campbell arrived carrying a large cat carrier and a plastic Walmart bag with flea shampoos, regular shampoos, brushes, antifungals from the pound, and cat doses of Benadryl. There were also catnip mice and small rubber koosh balls and baggies of cat snacks. Several cans of Fancy Feast cat food clanked at the bottom of the bag.

All of it was for Bump.

“Well,” she said. “Here he is.” She passed me the cat carrier and I took it by the handle. The first thing I noticed was how heavy it was.

“Wow, he’s heavy,” I said.

She snickered, “Wait until you pick him up. He’s all muscle.”

I set the carrier on one of the tables and peeked in through the metal gate in the front. Crammed inside was a giant brown and white cat. The first thing I noticed was that it looked like it had been romping through mud and fields of burrs. They were stuck to its matted fur. It had patches of hair missing from its head, and the scent of dried, putrid pond mud wafted from within. Gawd, I thought, it smells awful. When I leaned in close, it growled and hissed at me.

“Here’s some stuff that you might need,” she said. She passed the Walmart bag. “I’m gonna leave Bump with you for the weekend. So there’s food and toys, too. If you have any problems, have the pound call me.”

“Cool. I’ll get him cleaned up right now.”

“Be careful,” she said again. “He’s mean.”

Mean, I thought. Okay then.

I went to the cell and found my cell mate JT. I showed him the cat and the bag of stuff, told him that Bump would be with us for a few days, and how we needed to bathe and flea dip the cat.

“Ms. Campbell said the cat’s mean,” I said.

“Mean, huh?” he said, a bit humored. He poked a finger in between the front of the carrier, and the cat hissed and spat. “Oh! Definitely a live one.”

“I don’t think we should let it out in here because of the fleas and ticks. So let’s take it upstairs to the porter closet tub and we’ll let it out there.”

“Sure,” he said. “Suit up!”

‘Suit up’ is what we’d say to each other whenever it came to flea dipping and bathing difficult cats. What did ‘suit up’ mean? In This World, it meant that I put on an extra pair of long pants, a sweatsuit top, my sweat jacket, and when necessary, my winter jacket. I have razor thin scars on my arms and legs from previous efforts while not ‘suited up.’ There’s nothing worse than four sets of razor sharp claws dig into your flesh, as 10 pounds of wet, angry cat uses your body to claw itself to freedom. So, yeah, I suited up for this one.

By the time we made our way upstairs, the other men in the cell block were staring at us. It was quite a sight to behold, I’d imagine: two grown men dressed like Eskimo’s with bottles of shampoo, flea dip, and an angry, hissing cat carrier. If I didn’t know any better, I thought I caught looks of knowingness. That look one gives you when you know something is about to turn out bad.

We arrived at the porter closet.

“Alright,” said JT. “You want to hold and I’ll wash, or I hold and you wash?”

“I’ll hold, you wash,” I said.

Holding a reluctant cat under a flowing faucet in a deep porcelain tub was always a perilous proposition. Once the soap lathers, things get slippery fast. I felt more in control if I held, so it was an easy decision.

I set the cat carrier down on the second tier range. This was always a tricky moment. Sometimes you let the cat out and it takes off for the far reaches of the cell block; other times there’s no issue.

“You ready?” I asked.

“Go,” said JT, as he positioned himself on the range to stop any attempt to flee.

I clicked open the front of the carrier, and the door swung wide. The cat didn’t come out. Crap, I thought. I really don’t want to have to reach in for it. I then gently tilted the carrier, and Bump came pouring out.

There on the range sat the largest cat I’d ever seen. Bump had to be at least 16 pounds! He had a white face, a brown chin, brown and white pastel mid-section, paws that were padded brown, and all white legs. All his white parts were caked with dirt and streaks of mud. His long hair was knotted and matted, and he had patches of fur missing on his head and hindquarters. No sooner had this registered did I catch a good whiff of him–pure pond puke.

I stared down at the cat, and Bump looked up at me. Despite his gruff appearance, there was tenderness in those eyes.

I reached down and ran a hand over him. I felt his body relax, and I was amazed at how solid he was. One giant, furry muscle.

“Aww,” I said, more to soothe Bump than for anything else.

I ran my fingers around his head and neck, walked and gently poked and prodded them down and across his mid-section. If the cat had any pain, this is when I’d discover it. I continued prodding down his hindquarters and stopped at the tip of his tail. About halfway down his tail he meowed, and I felt a swollen area. Poor thing, I thought. He definitely got it smashed somewhere.

I made a mental note for Ms. Campbell to let the vet tech know. I then picked him up, the final test of injury, and he didn’t make a sound.

“Well,” I said to JT, “he seems fine enough. His tail’s got a bump, but he should be fine.”

“Good. Let’s wash him. He stinks,” he said.

I hoisted Bump into the porter’s closet. There we had a tall, square, porcelain tub. It was deep; ideal for mop buckets and washing cats. I set Bump in the tub and eyed him cautiously. Bump just sad there looking up at me. Hmph, I thought. He doesn’t seem so mean after all.

JT started the water and found the right temperature. I put my hands around Bump and moved him under the faucet. The water flowed down his back and rivered away in dark flows of muddy dirt and grime. It looked like he hadn’t ever had a bath. To my dismay, I saw fleas fleeing to areas that weren’t wet yet.

JT worked the water into his fur and then squirted cat flea shampoo all over him. No sooner had he worked up a lather did I feel every muscle in Bump’s body tense.

“JT, hurry; I think he’s not liking this,” I said.

Bump cast a wild eye at me, and we made eye contact. Gone was the tenderness I saw seconds ago. His green eyes narrowed to slits.

“JT,” I said.

“I know, I know,” he said. His hands moved and lathered quicker now. Bubbles recklessly accumulated in the tub. JT had used so much flea shampoo that bubbles threatened to engulf Bump’s entire form!

Bump let out a grueling mewl. I felt his body contract ever more, pulling his form into a dense ball. Beneath my palms his muscles felt like stretched rubber bands about to fire.

I tightened my grip and tried to maintain a good hold.

“Murrr,” Bump growled.

“Almost there,” said JT. “You got him, right?”

I felt my hands slipping from all the soap.

“You got him, right?” JT said again.

“Murrr!”

“Dude I’m slipping!”

“MURRR!”

“Rinse!” I said. “JT, RINSE!”

But it was too late. Bump uncoiled from a singularity, exploded, kicking wildly in all directions. I felt the stabbing pain of rows of sharp, angry cat teeth in the back of my hand.

Bump began gator rolling—

–-Oh shit, I thought. Shit, shit—

—and rolled again, loosening himself from my grip.

JT’s eyes flashed fear and Bump’s flashed maniacal glee. 16 pounds of soapy, pissed off cat dug forepaws and hind paws into his arms and chest. The beast scampered up JT’s body like he was a scratching post, found his shoulders, and went airborne.

JT screamed like a little girl.

Convict heads rippled across the cell block.

Someone pointed and laughed.

I watched as Bump landed with a squishing smack onto the range. The cat ran for the stairs, making quick work of the steps down to the ground floor before disappearing from sight.

“Shit,” I said.

We eventually located Bump. He’d made his way to the unit’s laundry room and was hiding behind a dryer. By the time we pried him from behind the machinery, he was covered in dust balls and dryer lint. I never realized how dirty the laundry room was until that day.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful with Bump. He hid under my bunk, only coming out to hit the litter box and scarf down his food whenever I fished out a can. Then it was back to hiding in his cave. I tried to coax him out, but he hissed and spat at me each time.

“Fine,” I said. “Stay under there then.”

Bump stared back with disdain.

Ms. Campbell arrived on the unit Monday morning, chipper as always. She was at my cell door knocking before I even realized she was there.

“How is he?” she asked.

“He’s fine,” I said. “He’s got a bump on his tail, probably got it smashed somewhere so you may want to let the vet tech know.” I had picked Bump up and offered him out to her.

“O-oh!” she squealed, “He looks so good cleaned up.” She took the animal from my hands and smelled him. “And he smells so good! Did you have any problem bathing him?”

I looked at Bump, and Bump looked at me. Bump meowed innocently as if on cue. Pfft! I thought.

“Nah,” I said. “No problem.”

Ms. Campbell set Bump in his carrier and gathered up his toys. She thanked me for taking care of him and getting him fixed up. She turned to leave, but stopped short.

“Oh, I heard it took both of you to wash one little kitty.” She gave me a playful gotcha smile. “I told you he was mean.”

“Just try not to run him over again,” I said.

And with that, she was off into the crowd.

*If you enjoyed this post, please like and share with your friends. In the meantime, I’ll keep writing for you! Also, if you know of other blogs written by inmates, please let me know because I enjoy reading what other guys write. Frankly, it helps keep me sane.

—Christopher

My Day With Kyzer

On By ChristopherIn Furry FriendsLeave a comment

This week I joined the staff dog program. I’d spent a decade in the pound rescue program, and my move to minimum security from medium ended that tenure. I had considered entry into the rescue program here in minimum security, but passed on it because I didn’t want to have to deal with the internal politics. Guys can be a bitchy lot.

Thankfully there is another dog program. It involves daycare, boarding, and training of staff owned dogs. The men in this program all have extensive experience, on average 7-10 years, and all of them have earned federally recognized apprenticeship certification. These are the guys that truly understand dogs and the ins and outs of training and care. All of them are in it for one common purpose: the dogs. A position came open this week and I pounced.

My first dog is a 7 month old AKC certified purebred German Shepherd name Kyzer. He’s owned by one of the guards, who has brought him to me for reinforcement training. Some people get a dog for a pet, others seek them out for their breed ability or utility such as for protection. Kyzer falls into the breed ability and protection category. A dog like Kyzer will set you back $5,000.

Participating in the staff dog program is a lot of work. This post is a snapshot of my first days with Kyzer. It’s a glimpse of how I live in this world.

Day 1 With Kyzer

Sunday (3:00am) I go to bed. I’m a night owl, and this is my normal time when I know I don’t have work the next day. It’s 11:30pm or earlier on work nights.

(5:15am) Someone is tapping on my bunk. Who the hell is tapping on my bunk?! I open my eyes and notice it’s one of my bunk mates (I live in a specially fenced in, four-man dog cube in a dorm). One hand is motioning for me to get out of bed, his other is holding a leashed German Shepherd. Wtf? Is that Jade? Jade’s a German Shepherd he regularly provides daycare for.

I crawl out of bed. He’s trying to hand me the leash. What’s going on? I immediately think that something bad has happened. I notice that one of the guards is standing at our gate. Is that a Walmart bag in his hand?

Realization dawns on me. Shit, I think, that’s Kyzer! But I thought the program administrator said Kyzer wouldn’t be in until Tuesday? I take possession of my first dog since leaving the pound program. And you know what? Man, it feels friggin’ great!

(6:00am) I fill Kyzer’s bowl with water and another with dog food. Kyzer laps down gobs of water. He’s a hit and run drinker, so I follow him with a towel, wiping up trails of drip all over the place. I notice he doesn’t touch his food. I coax him to eat, and he dismisses my attempts. He’s panting and antsy. He’s nervous, I think, and probably has to shit too.

(6:33am) Count clears, and I take Kyzer outside to potty. He promptly rewards me with two giant piles of crap. Solid, not runny or out of the ordinary. That’s good, I think. Yup, he had to shit. He doesn’t pee, which I find surprising considering all the water he guzzled. I make mental note.

(6:40am) Today will be all about acclimation. I will spend time observing Kyzer interacting with the other dogs in the program. Got to make sure he’s compatible, and if there’s issue, to always keep them separated. Plus, his owner wants him exercised and worn out by the time his shift is over. Apparently Kyzer has a lot of energy at home, and well, being a pup he has the tendency to take it out on the furniture. His latest assault was on a new set of blinds while chasing down a fly. “Did he at least get the fly?” I asked. “Yeah…,” his pops said, “he got it.”

Introduced Kyzer to Roscoe, Rosey, and Apollo. Roscoe’s a Pit Bull mix, Rosey is a Pit/Shar Pei mix, and Apollo is a Pomeranian/Husky mix (Pomsky). He looks like a miniature Husky. Kinda cool; a girl’s dog to be sure. Kyzer takes to the dogs without issue and they to him. So it’s play time for the next three hours.

(8:00am) Kyzer is back playing with the other dogs. He gets winded more quickly than the regulars. It’s normal for ‘new’ dogs, as most of the time they’ve spent their days at home sitting around or chewing on furniture. He’ll be spent by the time his pops comes for him.

(10:00am) I feed Kyzer. He guzzles water again, and I follow him with a towel. He doesn’t touch his food.

(10:10am) Kyzer’s owner checks in on him, and I let him know how things are going so far. He tells me his kids sometimes feed Kyzer by hand. Hmmm, I think.

(10:20am) I feed Kyzer a handful of food, and he takes to it eagerly. He then eats the whole bowl this way. I feel better now that he has eaten, but I hope this isn’t a habit for him. He guzzles more water…and the towel is now soaked. Where is all the water going? I wonder.

(11:30am) Count clears and I take Kyzer outside to potty. He squats and pees…and pees…and pees. Damn, Kyzer! Even I would be proud of that one. No poop this time. I’m grateful. Kyzer scratches and kicks back grass with his hind legs and stares up at me. “Okay, okay,” I say, and we go back inside.

So this is the mid-morning part of a typical day with a dog. Since Kyzer’s owner wants him worn out by the time his shift is over, Kyzer will be playing with the dogs until 2:00pm. In the meantime, I’ve made note of things that Kyzer needs work with. I noticed that he sometimes pulls when on leash, and doesn’t know ‘heel’ well yet, so this will be worked on in the coming days.

(1:00pm) I take Kyzer outside to potty and he rewards me with a steamy gift. I bag it up and dispose of the baggie in the dog poop trash can outside the housing unit.

(1:07-1:45pm) I walk with Kyzer and another dog handler, my cube mate D.B., who has Roscoe with him. Kyzer walks well, but I notice each time we pass the shade of the tree along the walkway Kyzer pulls toward it. It’s 87F outside, and I’m wondering if he’s at his limit. We’ve spun four short laps so far. On lap five Kyzer decides to stop in the grass and lay down. “Ah,” I say to Kyzer, “your ass is worn out, huh?” So I take Kyzer in for a large bowl of water. He guzzles a bowl, and I wring out another towel.

(1:45pm) I wipe Kyzer down with a damp washcloth and a few squirts of great smelling waterless doggie shampoo. The dogs can get smelly from hours of playing and slobbering all over each other, especially on hot summer days. I then brush him down until he’s all new. I take his leash to his collar and we sit together in the air conditioned dog room and wait for his owner to finish his shift. Kyzer promptly lays down beside me and falls asleep.

(2:10pm) Kyzer’s owner arrives. I go through a brief overview of Kyzer’s morning, provide my observations, and otherwise tell how well Kyzer took to the other dogs. Kyzer will be back tomorrow I’m told, 5:00am sharp.

(2:15pm) I watch how Kyzer acts as he departs in the distance with his owner. He looks taxed, and I’m pretty sure Kyzer will be asleep in the truck before he gets home. Just as his owner wanted–worn out.

I go back to the cube, gather up Kyzer’s blanket along with the towels and rags I used throughout the course of the day, and put them in the wash. I wash both his bowls with soap and water, dry them, and put them into his dog box. The box also contains a dog tennis ball, a rubber chew toy, another collar, a couple of bags of food, and a bag of professional dog training treats his owner uses and asks that I also use. I then slide the box under the bunk until 5:00am the following day. Exhausted, I catch a cat nap until count time. Before falling asleep, I go through the entire morning in my mind. I think about every moment and every action Kyzer made and nothing bad stands out in my mind. Man, I can’t wait until tomorrow!

So now I ask you: if you were tasked with training a German Shepherd like Kyzer, how would you go about doing it? German Shepherds are unique breeds, and they have their particular quirks and needs. They’re vocal dogs when they play, and they are fiercely loyal. I always try to maximize training by playing on a breed’s strength. If you own a German Shepherd, is there anything that you’ve discovered that you think may benefit Kyzer during his sessions? By all means, let me know!

Who Do You Love?

On By ChristopherIn Furry Friends, In This World6 Comments

It dawned on me earlier that a growing number of my readers are overseas in places like China, Europe, or Central and South America, and incarceration there is very different from here in the United States. As far as I know, only countries in Europe have the type of program I’m going to tell you about.

In the U.S., many prisons have a dog program where inmates train shelter rescue dogs or dogs that will specialize in helping the disabled (such as guide dogs). These programs offer a way for offenders to give back to local communities, and they provide a valuable service to those in need. Inmates learn a tangible skill, and the presence of dogs within the institutional environment has a calming effect on prisoners. For state corrections, these programs are valued both for their PR and for their practicality.

Here, we have two types of dog programs. One trains local shelter rescue dogs for adoption, and the other provides daycare, boarding, and training services for dogs owned by staff. In the rescue program, the local shelter sends us dogs as they receive them, and inmates who train them receive no compensation. Staff that bring their pets into the Staff Dog Program pay a daily fee, and the inmates involved in the program make a percentage of this fee.

I spent 10 years as a volunteer training dogs in the shelter rescue program. I’ve trained somewhere between 50-60 dogs, as training usually takes two to three months per animal. The experience is therapeutic and rewarding.

Training rescue dogs consists of commands like “sit,” “stay,” “come,” “down,” “off,” “sit-stay,” “down-stay,” “heel,” and potty training when necessary. Some dogs take to training with ease, and it’s a wonderful experience to discover a dog that learns in far excess of these commands.

One day the shelter sent me a 50 lb Rottweiler Lab mix named Allie. She was black and brown with white patches, a year old, and very intelligent. In fact, she was so smart that she learned and mastered the eight basic commands in about 10 days; faster than any dog I’ve ever handled. To give you comparison, most dogs require weeks to months to master all eight commands.

I knew something was different about Allie after the first day of training. I was teaching her to heel, which requires the dog to walk beside you on your left side with its shoulders no further than your knees. The dog is expected to sit whenever you stop walking and to automatically continue when you start to walk again. ‘Heel’ requires the dog to learn how to move in accordance to your movements. If you go left, the dog automatically moves left, and the same is true for when you go right. This discipline usually takes a number of days for a dog to master, as it is the most complex of all the eight disciplines. Allie learned ‘heel’ in two days. By the middle of the second week, she knew all the basics.

One afternoon, I came upon the cell after being outside. The cell doors are solid steel with small slit windows. I could enter the cell with a personal key, and I could exit the cell by pushing a button from the inside. On this day, Allie greeted me at the window.

As I put the key to the lock, I noticed Allie pawing at the button from the inside. It could have been coincidence, as she was all eagerness and paw motion. So I said to her, “Push the button!” each time I saw her pawing at the button. While she didn’t get the door open, she did figure out I was encouraging her to do what she was doing: paw in the area of the button.

So I decided to experiment. Using toilet paper, I fashioned a soft, bulbous bump shaped kind of like a Hershey’s Kiss chocolate. I then taped it to the button, which was indented and not flat. I departed the cell. Moments later, I returned to the door.

There was Allie, obediently waiting and looking up at the window. I said to her, “Allie, press the button!” She jumped up and looked through the window, but didn’t quite understand what I was getting at. So I said it again, “Press the button! Press the button!” and tapped on the door frame about where the button would be, and what do you know? She pawed again at the button, and this time the door clicked open and she came bounding out in circles. I pet and fussed over her, and we did this several more times before she had it down.

It wasn’t long before she was also closing the cell door. I had created a soft coat hanger out of shoe strings, a rolled up magazine, and a towel, and I affixed it to the inside of the cell door and encouraged her to bite into and pull the towel wrapped magazine. “Close the door!” was the command, and she figured it out after only a couple hours of work. I couldn’t believe how smart this dog was! Interestingly, Allie never let herself out of the cell when I wasn’t around.

Everyday the dogs played together in the community area of the day room. On this particular day, there were a number of puppies playing, and Allie seemed to be keeping an eye on them. Whenever one strayed from the pack, she herded it back into the fold. This habit went on every time there were puppies and was great amusement for everyone.

Then one afternoon Allie was playing with several puppies, and I wondered about something.

So I said, “Allie, come.”

Allie disengaged from puppy mania and came to me. There she sat, tongue lolling out of her mouth, pulsing up and down.

“Allie,” I said. “Get the puppy.” Her ears flickered straight up.

“Get the puppy! Get the puppy!” I said.

Allie jumped to all fours running from dog toy to dog toy–

“No,” I said.

–to the next toy–

“No-o,” I said. “Get the puppy! Get the puppy!” I pointed at the puppy I wanted.

She ran over to the puppy and looked around, then back at me, then ran in a circle around the puppy.

“Get the puppy!”

And in that moment the greatest thing happened: Allie put her mouth down on the puppy’s scruff and brought the puppy to me.

“Good girl! Good girl!” I then hugged her.

On another day, it was just Allie and a 50 lb hound dog playing together. I wondered what would happen if I told her to ‘get the puppy’ now?

“Allie,” I said.

Allie stopped playing.

“Get the puppy!” She ran around the play area, looked back at me several times, but kept searching. Eventually she circled back upon the hound dog.

“Get the puppy!” I said again, this time pointing to the hound dog.

Allie stretched her front paws at me and shouted a series of barks and whines.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Go play!”

And like that, she was black and brown action playing again. That was the first and only time Allie ever barked at anyone. Apparently, 50 lb hounds were the limit.

Another neat move she learned was how to hug you. On the command of “Who do you love?” she would jump up on her hind legs and place her front paws at your sides like a hug, with her chin up against your chest. Sometimes she’d lick your chin when you did. I made sure to hug her back each time.

Every day I took Allie for walks on the yard. She was fond of this and happiest when we were outside. Eventually I stopped putting her on a leash, and we’d slow stroll everywhere. Other times we’d go jogging together. I’d be on the track running, and she’d be in the grass running beside me.

At night, I usually kenneled the dogs to prevent them from getting into mischief. I’ve had electronic items, towels, flip-flops, books, and letters from home chewed on or eaten by dogs over the years. As for Allie? I always left the kennel door open for her. Sometimes she’d sleep in the kennel; other times she slept with me at the foot of the bunk. Some mornings I’d wake up to discover that she had crawled up from the end to wedge herself against me and the wall.

About 10 weeks in, I started teaching her American Sign Language. I wanted to see if she could learn some basic commands in ASL. She had proven herself very intelligent, and at this point I was sometimes catching myself talking to her when we were alone. She never felt like a dog to me. She was smarter than some of the guys I knew!

Allie had only one bad moment. I had made a pizza and placed it on the top bunk just for a minute and left the cell. Allie was curled up in a ball on the floor minding herself. When I returned, Allie was still curled up on the floor, but I had noticed something different about the pizza. Someone had excised a perfect square slice from the middle (it was sliced in squares), but left the rest of the pizza untouched. At first I was baffled.

I looked at Allie.

“Allie,” I said. “What did you do?”

Allie looked away. Ah, I thought, guilty.

I couldn’t help but think that she had figured I wouldn’t have believed it was her. After all, what dog eats only one slice?

By the time she was scheduled to leave, she had learned more than 45 verbal commands and 14 genuine ASL commands. Eight of the ASL signs were based on the eight basic commands, but the other six weren’t. They were single ASL signs for “get” (which I used for “get the puppy”), “I love you” (which was used for “who do you love?”) ,”wait” (which I used for “lie down”), “run” (when I wanted to tell her to go play), “cut” (when I wanted her to stop playing), and “no” (whenever I wanted to tell her to knock it off). She understood verbal commands for all kinds of dog toys and could fetch them by name. She understood the names of all the other dogs, and she understood the names of a number of non-dog related things like “shoes,” “radio,” “coffee,” etc. At one point, I started to wonder what the world’s smartest dog knew. I wasn’t so sure that the smartest dog wasn’t the one sitting in front of me.

More and more I found myself spending every waking moment with her and not wanting to do anything else unless she was with me. How, I often wondered, did this wonderful dog ever find its way to the pound?

On the weekends, the local PetSmart held meet and greets for customers looking to adopt a shelter dog. I knew that when Allie’s turn came, she wouldn’t return to me. Someone would adopt her.

Then the day arrived. I gathered her paperwork, which included a daily training diary explaining all that she knew and my observations and recommendations. Before the shelter came for Allie, I took one last moment alone with her.

“Allie,” I said. “I’m gonna miss you.”

Allie sat quietly looking up at me.

I signed the ASL sign for ‘I love you.’

She jumped up and put her paws at my sides and licked my chin.

“Now go,” I said, “and make someone happy.” And I hugged her.

That evening, all the dogs returned except for one: Allie. Someone had adopted her. She was gone. I walked back to the cell and closed the door behind me. Her absence was the first thing I noticed. It was quiet, and the cell felt empty.

I thought I’d prepare the kennel for the next dog, so to take my mind off of Allie. As I did, I discovered three of my socks buried under her blanket. They’re all different, I thought. She must have snuck them from my dirty laundry when I wasn’t looking. But when?

I sat there for a long time holding the socks in my hands.

I thought of all our moments together and smiled.

“I love you, too,” I said.

I then finished preparing the kennel.