When I returned to Chicago from California, I also returned to volunteering at PAWS. There was a young labrador who'd just had puppies and needed some "me time" away from her demanding brood. I took her for a long quiet walk and fell in love.
She's recently been adopted by the police department. However, while the department decides who her human partner will be, she continues to live at PAWS.
Since she's no longer available for adoption - and still very much in need of extra exercise because she's a young labrador - a foster home is needed for her. In the meantime, several volunteers are stepping up to take her out for long runs, playtime on the rooftop dog park, and then there's me-- taking her out on marathon walks about town while I do errands by foot.
Today we discovered OZ park together! I can't run her, but I enjoyed the thought of repeated climbs up/down this large hill in the park. So we marched up, then down, then up, then down, then up, then...
oops! an outdoor stage with marble seating built into the hill. and what's this? 2 wooden sticks. One maybe a mop handle. Another a broken-off leg from a table. Tucked together in a crevice between the earth/grass and the seats. An empty Grey Goose bottle next to them.
I have a brief chat with my heroine future-police-dog walking buddy, Wonder Woman. Debating if I'm overreacting by feeling alarm at this discovery.
There have been nightly beatings in this area. Some in this park! The sight of broken off wood sticks tucked together with alcohol in a park making headlines daily makes my Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mystery/logic/puzzle book-trained brain work overtime.
Wonder Woman agrees we should call the non-emergency police, so I do.
"umm hello I'm out for a long walk with a dog, just returned to Chicago after a long time out of town, not sure where I am... little bit east of Halsted and Armitage in a large park on a hill behind a....school? By an outdoor stage... haha - I promise I've got a point here....""uh huh""ummm so I noticed 2 sticks. Well one is long, wooden...not sure what it is... The other looks like it was a leg to a table, but now broken off. They're laying together tucked by the seating area of this stage. Next to an empty vodka bottle. And I wondered...mmm...wondered if this was something that might interest the police...""mmm hmmm. Well I tell you what. If we saw something like that in a park you know what we would do? we would pick them up and THROW THEM IN THE GARBAGE""eh (chuckle)- ummm- well normally I would just throw them in the garbage but, well you know, with the daily reports of beatings in this area in the middle of the night...well...I just thought... you know I thought they could be weapons""(chuckle) well of COURSE they're weapons. Which is why you need to toss them in the garbage""ummm but don't you want to...ummm the beatings here...ummm I just thought...well (nervous chuckle) ok, I'll just throw them in the garbage. Sorry I took up your time sir. Thank you!"
I had fantasized a grateful voice on the other end eagerly grilling me for info on my exact location. Wonder Woman and I waiting for the squad car to arrive. Pointing out our discovery and happily sharing the news that "my" dog was actually their dog getting some exercise from a loving volunteer happy to help her city police. The officers grateful for my call, my quick thinking, and for giving so much love to a random dog who will soon be working for them full-time.
"Wonder Woman! You've cracked your first case before your first day on the job! You haven't even finishing your training yet!"
The reality was a chuckling, condescending officer explaining how I should react to litter. My canine friend helping me find a newspaper to grab our discovery without leaving MY fingerprints. Us searching for a garbage receptacle large enough to fully accept the long sticks and hide them from potential ne're do wells.
After finishing our job we walked back towards the shelter. Me stopping for a lemon Italian ice. Her stopping for some water and biscuits.
And when I got home the top story on the local news was another attack in the neighborhood. And how the police have no leads on who the culprits are. And how Guardian Angels came out from NYC to hand out information in Lincoln Park on how to keep safe and spot suspicious clues.
A man gives an interview describing the attack he survived early this (Tuesday) morning. He mentions the villains hit him with tools that looked "sort of like long wooden bully sticks".
2 blocks from Wonder Woman's discovery.
