Trees and power lines were down, trash cans spilled their contents all over the streets, an eerie calm had settled over South Providence and Rescue 1 was assessing the damage. At the outskirts of Roger Williams Park, a lone figure moved through the shadows, sillohetted by the streetlights on one of the streets that still had power.

"Brian, stop the truck," I said, when the creature came closer. He came right over when Brian opened the door, and climbed on his lap. I scratched his ears and he slobbered all over, much to Brian's dismay. He tried to crawl into the cab, but he was big, and wet, and kind of scary.

The city was in chaos, there wasn't much we could do for him but give him a little love and hope he found his way home.

Little did we know, he was home, but needed a little human companionship after what must have been a frightening night alone in the woods, with trees crashing down,and hail the size of golf balls falling on him.

Good luck, Chase, we'll meet again.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/Chance_At_Large_06-30-11_KROTOTL_v12.4ac51.html

He takes a chance on child and a Frisbee

08:17 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2011

By Donita Naylor

Journal Staff Writer

"Chance," the dog that has been wandering Roger Williams Park since the winter, turns himself in to authorities.

 

Journal Files / Bob Breidenbach

PROVIDENCE — In the end, it was a Frisbee and a gleeful toddler that drew Chance back into the company of man.

A dog who survived the winter in Roger Williams Park, dining on donated chow and whatever trash he could find and eluding capture by positioning himself in the middle of frozen ponds and by not being fooled when blankets were draped over a Havahart trap baited with a meaty ham bone, finally let himself be caught Tuesday, by a park ranger who spent six months trying to win his trust.

Providence Parks Ranger Erik Lundblad said he kept an eye (mostly through binoculars) on the dog almost every day until he was assigned to first shift about a month ago. “The guys on second shift had seen him as recently as a week ago,” said Lundblad, who recalled how “people came out of the woodwork” after stories about Chance ran in January and February. “It was unbelievable. It became a nuisance. My whole post was trying to catch this dog.”

People donated bags of kibble, cans of dog food, even steaks and stew meat.

“I was microwaving, and giving him hot meals every day,” Lundblad said. When he changed shifts, his replacement, Tony Cappalli, kept up the evening feeding schedule.

Chance was well-fed, but no one, including a professional trapper, could get within 20 feet of him.

That changed early Tuesday afternoon. Lundblad had stopped to watch a man and a 2- or 3-year-old tossing a Frisbee. Chance “just galloped out of the woods, wanting to play.”

The dog, who looks like a pit bull, seemed delighted by the child. The father moved to protect the boy, and Lundblad called the dog away from them.

“He actually listened to me,” Lundblad said. “I said ‘sit’ and he sat. I couldn’t believe it. The dog’s listening to me like I own him.”

The boy’s father had a length of nylon rope. “I made a little noose to keep him until animal control could get there,” Lundblad said. Chance let him slip the loop over his head.

The dog had mange, which Lundblad described as “little, tiny, microscopic biters. I could see how gross he was.”

The dog’s face was bleeding, his head was bald and he had scabs all over. His eyes were swollen and so were his front paws. “He was a real mess.”

Almost as soon as he had been captured, Lundblad said, Chance took the rope in his mouth, “chomped on it four times, and the thing was in half.”

He was loose, but it didn’t seem to matter. “He basically just hung around us, rubbing his face on bushes and the grass and stuff because he was so itchy from mange.”

Another parks ranger, Brian Welch, helped snag the dog and load him into the animal control van, Lundblad said.

Chance was taken to Mass RI Veterinary ER in Swansea, which confirmed that he had been treated and released back to Providence Animal Control.

Lundblad said he and a friend from Almost Home Rescue believe that Chance’s chances, of being rehabilitated and placed in a loving home, are good.

Lundblad said he knew “hundreds of people that want this dog.

“It has to be somebody that has a fenced-in yard. If he gets out again, he’s going to fly the coop.”

Oh my God!  I went on vacation and came back twelve days later and the same people are in the hospital waiting room! And they all look like each other, are dressed like each other, and they all are making the same retching sounds and moans and groans, and the place still smells like vomit. It's like i entered a time warp, and while life went on for me, everything at work stood still.

And nobody even noticed I was gone. Was I gone? Am I even here?

The tone keeps going off, I must be here. But it's the same people calling, with the same problems. Frequent Flyers. Familiarity breeds contempt, they say, spend a few years on Rescue 1 and you will know exactly what they mean.

That's all for now, Rescue 1, Responding.

What the heck is going on here? The same person who looks into mangled cars and pulls out mangled people, has no trouble picking up severed fingers and putting them in a sterile wrapping, brushes puke out of the way with one hand while sinking an ET tube and doesn't even flinch nearly passes out when somebody he knows is bleeding.

I'm even worse when on the receiving end of an IV. 'Suck it up, soldier, and quit being a crybaby," I may have mentioned a time or two before sinking a 16, but beg for a 22 when it's MY arm being invaded.

Thank god for 911, these "civilians" are useless in an emergency!