Love knows no bounds.. a must reed

Dog Travels 10 Miles In The Cold To Find His Shelter Mate

April 08, 2013 - 2:59PM EST

By: Sue Loughlin

Ben (left) would do anything for love.

In fact, the 41⁄2 year-old, 70-pound dog ran away from his new, adoptive home in Youngstown Meadows; traversed 10 miles across busy streets, railroad tracks and lonely fields; braved the cold and his own hunger; and somehow, some way, in about 24 hours, found his way back to the Terre Haute Humane Shelter.

And there, he rejoined the love of his life, his soul-mate and the mother of his children, Jade (right), a 1-year-old German Shepherd mix.

But this love story doesn’t end there.

When Courtney and Jason Lawler, the couple that had adopted Ben, realized the two former strays would not be happy without eachother, they adopted both.



The story of Ben’s trek to find his girl “is amazing,” Courtney Lawler said Friday. The Lawlers knew Ben and Jade were close, and even stayed in the same pen at the shelter.

But initially, the Lawlers decided one pet was enough, for many reasons.

They have a 3-year-old rambunctious son, and Jade seemed “a little more skittish than Ben,” Courtney Lawler said. THHS staff believe Jade was a stray her whole life, until she was taken to the shelter. Jade is not used to being around people.

For a long time, Ben and Jade were strays who lived near Fruitridge Avenue and Fort Harrison Road; different people on the north end, including staff at Benjamin’s Family Dining, made sure they were fed, said Debbie Floyd, president of the Humane Society board.

“Anyone who travels the north end would have seen them,” said Floyd, who works in that area and also fed them.

When Jade got pregnant last summer, “We trapped them and took them to the shelter,” she said.

Ben and Jade remained together at the shelter for several months. “They were a bonded pair,” said Charles Brown, shelter manager.

When Jade had six puppies, THHS adoption counselor Kali Skinner took the mother and puppies home to take care of them for eight weeks, and eventually found homes for all six puppies. Jade was timid, but a “very caring mother,” Skinner said.

Jade and Ben were then re-united at the shelter, until the Lawlers adopted Ben. While Ben had plenty of food, and a warm, loving home …

“When a man loves a woman, can’t keep his mind on nothing else. He’ll trade the world, for the good thing he’s found,” or so goes the Percy Sledge song.

The Lawlers had Ben for about three weeks. On Dec. 28, while Jason Lawler was taking out the trash and talking on his cell, Ben saw opportunity, shot out the door and ran. And ran. And he didn’t look back.

No one’s sure where exactly the path of love took Ben as he made his way to the shelter at 1811 S. Fruitridge, but he got there by last Saturday night.

While he wanted desperately to be with his mate, he did not want to get caught, either. Shelter workers tried four hours on Sunday to get him — even using Jade as bait. “He knew it was a trap,” Skinner said.

Jade was inside a fence, and Ben was out. She must have been warning him, because he would not go inside. He did, however, “kiss her through the fence,” said Skinner, one of several who worked feverishly to capture the street-savvy Ben.

The shelter workers renewed their efforts on Monday, New Year’s Eve, and finally used a dart gun to tranquilize and slow him down, although he put up a long, hard fight once again and it took another several hours before they captured him.

“The story, the emotion and the energy it took to track this fellow and get him back to the shelter was amazing to witness,” wrote Sue Berta, a shelter volunteer, who helped recapture Ben, a carmel-colored German Shepherd and husky mix.

Ben and Jade were “visibly happy to see eachother, barking and wagging their tales,” Brown said.

On Thursday, the Lawlers took the re-united couple home; they had adopted Jade. Ben likes to hide under a bed, while Jade lies on a mat beside him. Both are shy animals uncomfortable around strangers, and the Lawlers hope to receive assistance from a shelter volunteer trained to work with such animals. “It will take a lot of time and patience in working with them,” Courtney Lawler said.

She described Ben as “content and happy because he has Jade,” while Jade “still has a lot of puppy to her.”

Floyd is grateful to the Lawlers for taking both dogs.

Ben and Jade “want to be together. There hasn’t been a lot of human love in their lives,” Floyd said. “They found love with eachother and that what’s make them happy … Hopefully, they will live their lives happily ever after.”

We get Chester

I got a call from Leslie, Chester's owner June 1st telling us that the Vet said the pups could go home after that Sunday, unfortunately I couldn't go up during the week to get him so the next Saturday would have to be it.

June 9th Cassie and I head up to Salem to pick Chester up. We decided to stop at the pet shop to get him a collar, leash and bed. After checking out the beds we decided to let Chester pick it out so off to pick up my new baby.

Well, turns out Chester was the last one to go. The others had been picked up by Wednesday so after 7 brothers and sisters to play with, poor little Chester was all alone with just his mom. He did act happy to see us either that or just someone else to play with.

Off we went to the PetSmart. We got the collar Ben & I picked out before and then to the beds. We put a couple on the floor and let him decide. We picked the one he kept trying to shake. We put the back left and the front passenger seat down. this way we could lay the bed down and I could see out front. We didn't figure he'd be happy in the back by himself so I decided to sit with him.

I got him a stuffie call Lamb Chop to keep him company on the way home. He looked so cute laying there not a whole lot bigger than the toy.  The drive home wasn't to bad. We stopped about half way there to stretch our legs and to let him out to go potty.  He liked playing in the grass. About 45 minutes from home he decided he didn't want to sleep in his bed and was really whiny so I decide to hold him.

Look at those paws.. they are huge. He is definitely going to be a big boy but that's what I wanted.  Well we brought him in through the garage to introduce him to the girls.  Tootsie was more interested in him than Chase. She really didn't want anything to do with him but then it took her a month or so to get used to Tootsie and she was a little over 2 when we got her.. Now she has to deal with a puppy.

Tootsie does show a lot of patience with Chester and they really get going pretty rough but for as big as she is hasn't hurt him. No more than an extra nip now and then..but I'm sure Chester has done a lot more than nipping.



I think what he has wanted most of all was to just have someone to snuggle with. After all with as many siblings as he had he has to be missing them. Once the girls let him snuggle he settles down. Chase has been the hardest to convince this is all he wants.   He does like to be close to me too. When I'm in my quilt room he wants me to sit with him but has been really good about laying by himself.

Of course I have to make sure he isn't cold too. He stayed like this for quite a while..until Tootsie barked and woke him up then he had to go check it out too.

next....our frst week

My new puppy.

I'm changing my blog from all quilting to include the Life of Chester the Dobie...

I thought it would be fun to write about my new puppy as he grows up.  We have two Labs Chase & Tootsie.  We got Chase when she was 5 1/2 weeks old, the runt and as sweet as can be. Her mom had a little golden retriever so she has ended up a red lab with the feathers on her tail, legs and tummy and is soft as can be. W adopted Tootsie about 4 years ago or she would have been taken to the pound. She has been Ben's running partner ever since.

A few years ago I became friends with some really great Doberman people when I started looking for a pup. I had been working with a breeder for about a year and a half but her breeding's just didn't take, I decided not to wait any longer and started looking else where. I wasn't in a real rush but I stared looking.

 I finally found a litter born April 16th. What was neat was that it was a litter of 8, 2 of each red, black, blue & fawn. All boys except the blue.

I had decide I wanted a red one so I called. Usually when I found pups they were already spoken for but got lucky this time. Cassie and I drove up to Salem. this was May 6th. Chase had been the runt so I thought I'd pick the little red one but then I picked up the brother. Looked into his sweet face and I was lost. 

I had been holding him in the middle of my chest when he fell asleep. After a few minutes he just sort of fell over. I figured this had to be him if he trusted me enough to fall over like that. So Chester because one of the family.   Then Ben and I drove up again on Mother's Day so he could meet Chester too. He had started to eat really food by then and you could tell they all were starting to get a mind of their own.

The kids and I drove up the next Saturday. The family was really nice and said we could come up every weekend if we wanted to but a two hour drive up and back for a 20 minute visit was just to much. 

At 6 1/2 weeks the kids and I went to visit again. Figured Ethan would want to visit his summer buddy. he was a little rascal, already getting into things. We had a great visit but decided not to go back up until it was time to bring him home. Which was another two weeks on June 9th.

I had been planning on getting his ears done. I spent about a week and a half checking int a Vet who would crop and wrap...boy what stress. After looking over all the pictures we'd taken Ben said he was just as cute without his ears done as he would be with so I decided since we weren't going to breed or show him we'd keep him with the natural look.

Next...the pick up date.

Sister's quilt show

this was a great show. Spent several hours walking around. Browsed through several shops. The weather was great while we were there but they had to shut down several hours before usual because of a thunderstorm. It started to rain while we were in Bend and by the time we were back through Sister's about 3:30 they had all the quilts down and almost all the other street vendors were gone.

this was a shot east through town. it was really a nice morning.

Farmers Market top done & foot problem

Well I finally finished the top today and the change in green worked great. I thought the broccoli would have been to much so after getting help from my husband we found the right green. Funny thing is it matches the green in the outer border. It really needed something and I was even thinking of a thin black border. Now I need to find a backing that goes with it to finish it up. This was a really quick top..lots of straight stitching. Cut & sewed the blocks one weekend. Stitched blocks into a top the next and then the borders this morning. Not bad. It' 68 x 58 so it will take me a bit to have a table big enough to pin.
Saw the doctor and he couldn't find anything wrong. What we are doing is a stronger inflammatory and a trip to a nerve specialist. I refused to get cortisone shots. To me it's a quick fix only...besides I don't like needles..

Another step closer to completion...

Well after spending last weekend sewing, I woke up Monday morning and my right foot was just miserable. It was so puffy that I couldn't get my shoes on. I ended up wearing my slippers to work for three days before I was able to get my tennis shoes on. They are a little looser fit. Would you believe sewing caused my foot to swell. I did sew a lot of little squares together, then into blocks.

Saturday I finally felt comfortable enough to work on the quilt layout. put all the rows up while Ben was at his run so when he came home I got him to help switch them around do not all one fruit or veggie was  in one section. Took us a while but this is what we decided on.

Surprisingly it didn't take me that long to sew all the rows together. It turned out pretty good. Now all it needs it the two borders. One is of broccoli and the outside one is seed packets.. Still trying to decide what to put on the back to finish it up.

Sometimes it pays to put off what you can do another day....or a couple years.

My weekend project.

I bought a fruits & vegetable quilt kit for my birthday summer before last. something I'd been wanting to make for a long time. The pattern is in a book called Six Halves Make a Whole and it's called All Shook up. My quilt will really look nothing like the book quilt. Well, I finished two small quilts and a table runner so I decided to do this one. When I first took out the book and started reading the pattern I thought I'd bit off more than I could chew but once I started it has gone pretty smoothly. I ironed the fabric Friday night and started the cutting Saturday morning. I just finished putting all the blocks together a little before 11 tonight. Now to get the blocks all sewn together. It will probably take me to next weekend. I seem to get very tired after dinner anymore and can fall asleep in my chair. here's a picture of what my blocks look like.

there are 6 sets of 6 different blocks. You should have seen my table. I had 8 piles of all the sizes with post-its to tell me the size. I hadn't done one like this is a long time. It turned out pretty fun. The kit also came with fabric for two borders. the inner border will be broccoli and the outside one is seed packets.
Well it's getting late and I do have to get up for work tomorrow. I'll post more pictures when I'm got the top finished.