Hey Jude the Rescue Dog

Written By: Michael D.  Delano

It began with our first Golden Retriever, Camille, in the summer of 1970 when we rented the next-to-last house on Montauk Point.  It basically ended 40 years later with our first male Golden Retriever, Hey Jude, on the skinniest part of the East End of the North Fork of L.I.  The words to that 1970’s song Me and Bobby McGee: “Freedoms just another for nothing left to lose.” is pertinent to this story because It refers to my once held belief that most “trained/show” dogs (conformation, obedience, agility, therapy, seeing-eye, etc.) were a little muted in their personalities.  I felt that a little bit of FREEDOM allows them to develop full personalities. So at Montauk we would climb down the cliffs to the Atlantic Ocean and let Camille run free on the rocky beach: She loved it and swam in the water when it was calm.

 

On Friday, 10/22/2010, Hey Jude and I went for our usual early afternoon walk on Truman’s Beach out at East Marion. We begin at the Eastern end of Dam Pond and walk a little passed it’s Western end which is a wooded Maritime Reserve about a half a mile wide, separating the Long Island Sound from Orient Harbor  As we got to the Western end which is wet mud flats and sea grass, Hey Jude spotted a young deer, a beautiful buck with a full head of antlers, and took off after him.  It was stunning to watch them running in and out of the woods onto the mud flats.  Hey Jude is enormously powerful and fast, but he was no match for this young buck who kept reappearing behind him, challenging Hey Jude to try and catch him.  I was a little worried because the Southern terminus of these mud flats is the 50-mph Route 25 highway on the Causeway where there are periodic “road kills”.  I wandered out onto the mud flats, calling out his name, and got soaked and muddy in the process.  I got him back.

 

The next morning, Saturday 10/23/2010, my wife, Barbara, and I took Hey Jude for his early morning free-roaming beach walk on Truman’s Beach.  Barbara always gets a little nervous at his freedom.  He spotted two gorgeous young fawns and chased then into the woods at the end of Dam Pond, but he did not reappear.  We searched and called out for him for nearly an hour, at which point I sent Barbara back to our house and continued the search.  A half hour later she came back to the beach and told me that she had gotten a call from a woman at the Southold Animal Shelter in Peconic and that they had Hey Jude.  Here’s the story: Hey Jude, in chasing the deer, had traveled the half mile through the woods ontoRroute 25 where he was almost run over by two cars when a firewoman driving East to work stopped him and the traffic in both directions and tried to lure him into her car.  At the same time a young woman, Amber, who works at the Animal Shelter was driving West to work and saw what was going on and stopped.  She lured Hey Jude into her car with a “treat” and drove to the Shelter where he was “incarcerated.”  From the name tags and phone numbers on his collar she was able to identify him and call us.  We drove the 15 miles to Peconic, donated $50 to the shelter, and Amber brought Hey Jude out to us.  He seemed his usual, hyper energetic, happy, self:; just another “interesting adventure” .  I was so furious with him that I almost wanted to leave him there, but Amber calmed me down.  On our 15 mile drive back to East Marion we stopped and bought two extra strength (120 lb) 26 feet long flexi-leads. He’s not happy with this new restricted beach-walking and I’m a little annoyed with myself: This MALE golden Retriever is not at all like our previous FEMALE Golden Retrievers and must learn that  “Freedom’s NOT just another word for nothing left to lose”

 

Thanks Amber for rescuing Hey Jude.