Ellie's Story

by W. Bruce Cameron

  Suddenly I felt a surge of excitement off Jakob. He spoke to his shoulder, in that same funny way humans sometimes held up boxes near their faces and talked into them. “Ten-four. Unit Eight-Kilo-Six responding,” he said.

  Amy ran over to our gate. Cammie jumped up, but Amy didn’t call for him. She was looking at me. “Ellie!” Amy commanded. “Come!”

  Jakob was running and I streaked past Amy, chasing him. In moments we were out of the yard and I was in the cage in the back of the truck. I found myself panting, picking up some of Jakob’s excitement.

  Something told me that whatever was happening, it was far more important than Find Wally.

  6

  Jakob drove us to a large, flat building. Several people were outside the front door, gathered into a circle. I could feel the tension in them as we pulled up. Jakob came around and petted me, but he left me in the truck. “Good dog, Ellie,” he said absently.

  I sat and watched him anxiously as he went up to the group of people. What was he doing? Why was he walking away from me? Weren’t we going to Work? I knew I was supposed to wait patiently for him to give me a command, but it was hard. I whined a little.

  Several of the people near Jakob spoke at once.

  “We didn’t notice her missing until lunch, but we don’t have any idea how long she’s been gone.”

  “Marilyn’s an Alzheimer’s patient. Sometimes she thinks she’s back at her old house, or that she needs to go the job she used to have. She won’t remember enough to find her way back.”

  “I don’t understand how she got away with no one seeing.”

  While I sat there in the truck, a squirrel climbed down the trunk of a tree and scurried around, trying to dig up food in the grass. I stared at it, astounded. Didn’t it realize that I was a vicious predator? And that I was only ten feet away?

  Jakob came back to the cage and opened the door. “Heel!” he commanded, giving me no chance to teach the squirrel a lesson. It shot up a tree anyway and sat up there, chattering. I ignored it. Time to Work.

  Jakob led me away from the people to a corner of the front yard. He held out two shirts that smelled of old sweat, of something sweet and flowery. I stuck my nose into the soft cloth, breathing in deeply. “Ellie, Find!”

  It was just like the park. I knew exactly what to do, and I took off, running past the knot of people. “She wouldn’t have gone that way,” someone said.

  “Let Ellie work,” Jakob replied.

  Work. I carried the sense memory of the clothing in my mind as I held my nose up to the air, moving back and forth to pick up the trail. A lot of people had walked across this yard. Dogs had been along the sidewalk. Cars had driven down the street. I could smell all of them, but none of those smells was the right smell. I couldn’t Find.

  Frustrated, I turned back to Jakob.

  He could tell I was disappointed. “That’s okay, Ellie. Find.” He began walking down the street, and I leaped ahead. There were more lawns; I dashed up and down each one. Somewhere that smell, the one right smell, would be hidden. I’d discover it.

  I turned the corner and slowed down. There it was! It was faint, just a hint, but it got stronger as I moved in the right direction. It was tantalizing me, coming to me.…

  I zeroed in on the right trail and the smell was powerful now. There was no doubt. I had Found it. Forty feet in front of me, at the base of a clump of bushes, there was a burst of the scent, perfectly clear. I turned and ran back to Jakob, who had been joined by several police officers.

  “Show me, Ellie!” Jakob said at once.

  I took him back to the bushes. He bent, poking at something with a stick.

  “What is it?” one of the officers asked, coming up behind Jakob.

  “A tissue. Good dog, Ellie, good dog!” He offered me the stick and we wrestled with it quickly, but I could sense that we weren’t done here. There was more Work.

  “How do we know that’s hers? It could have been dropped by anybody,” one of the police officers objected.

  Jakob ignored him. He bent down so his face was near mine. “Okay, Ellie. Find!”

  I followed the trail as it led away from the tissue. It went about two blocks, then turned right, getting stronger. At a driveway it made another sharp right turn and took me through an open gate.

  And there she was, sitting on a swing set, moving gently. Her small feet just brushed the ground. There was a real sense of happiness flowing from her, and she seemed glad to see me.

  “Hello, doggy,” she said. Somehow her voice sounded far away, even though she was only a few feet from me.

  I ran back to Jakob. His excitement surged the moment he saw me. He knew that I’d done my Work. I had Found her! But he waited until I reached him before he reacted. “Okay, Show me!” he urged.

  I took him to the lady on the swing set, and I felt his relief the moment he stepped through the gate. “Are you Marilyn?” he asked gently.

  She tipped her head to one side, looking at him. “Are you Warner?” she replied.

  Jakob spoke into the microphone at his shoulder, and soon we were joined by the other police officers. Jakob took me into the front yard. “Good dog, Ellie!” he praised. He pulled a rubber ring out of his pocket and sent it bouncing across the lawn, and I jumped on it and brought it back, holding it out for him to grip and tug on. We played for about five minutes, my tail whipping the air the whole time.

  Someone new arrived then and led Marilyn back up the street with an arm around her. We followed. I could feel the relief pouring off the people who came out to meet Marilyn, call out her name, and take her inside.

  She’d been in some kind of danger, that faraway, gentle lady named Marilyn. I understood that now. By Finding her, Jakob and I had saved her.

  As Jakob shut me in the cage in the back of the truck, I could feel the pride coming off him. “Good dog, Ellie. You are such a good dog.”

  It wasn’t the adoration I used to feel from Georgia, but it was as close as Jakob could come. That was the first moment I really understood my purpose: not just to Find people, but to save them.

  That was what Jakob and I did together; that was our Work. And it was what he cared about most.

  The next day, our Work was back to normal. Wally was hiding on top of a Dumpster full of all sorts of trash—some of it smelled delicious, some smelled awful, but I was still able to pick out the Wally smell. He couldn’t fool me! When Work was done, Jakob stopped by a store and picked up some sweet-smelling flowers. To my surprise, we didn’t head home.

  Instead, we drove and drove and drove. It took so long that I got tired of holding my nose up to the wire mesh of my cage. Usually I loved the rush of smells that poured over me when I rode in the truck. It was hard to believe that, when I was just a puppy, I’d been frightened of it. I loved it now. The smells came and went so quickly that I couldn’t tell them apart, but it felt wonderful just to let them wash over me.

  But I got tired of that at last and lay down on the floor with my head on my paws, waiting for the trip to be over.

  When Jakob came to let me out, there was a heaviness in him. Whatever was hurting him inside seemed stronger than ever. He even moved more slowly, as if his sadness were something heavy that he had to carry with every step.

  I hopped down out of the truck. We were in a big yard filled with smooth stones that stuck up out of the soft grass.

  Not sure what we were doing, I stayed close to Jakob as he walked away from the truck, carrying his flowers. Was this Work? I didn’t think so. Jakob never felt this sad when we were doing Work.

  Jakob stopped walking and knelt down. He put the flowers next to one of the stones. The pain inside him twisted so deeply that tears fell silently down his cheeks.

  I nuzzled at his hand, worried about him. It wasn’t right, for Jakob to cry like this. Something needed to be done about it.

  “It’s okay, Ellie. Good dog. Sit.”

  I sat. Since I couldn’t Find Jakob, or rescue him, or do anyth
ing to help him, I just stayed next to him, feeling sad with him.

  He cleared his throat. “I miss you so much, honey. I just … sometimes I don’t think I can get through the day knowing you’re not going to be there when I get home,” he whispered hoarsely.

  I lifted my ears at the word “home.” Yes, I thought. Let’s go home. Let’s leave this sad place.

  But Jakob didn’t move, and he kept on talking.

  “I’m on K-9 patrol right now, search and rescue. I’ve got a dog. Her name is Ellie, a one-year-old German shepherd.”

  I wagged my tail.

  “You’d like her, honey. I wish you could have met her. She’s a good dog; she really is.”

  I wagged harder, but Jakob didn’t seem to notice me, even though he’d said my name and, “Good dog.”

  “We just got certified, so we’ll be going out, now. I’ll be glad to get off the desk. I’ve gained about ten pounds from all the sitting.” Jakob laughed, and the sound of it was so peculiar that it nearly made me whimper. It was such a sad, tortured little laugh, with no happiness in it at all.

  We stayed there, hardly moving at all, for about ten minutes. Jakob seemed like one of the pieces of stone sticking up out of the ground, hard and cold and motionless. Slowly, the feeling I could sense in him shifted. It was less raw pain and more of a feeling sort of like fear.

  “I love you,” Jakob whispered. Then he got up and walked away. I followed closely at his heels.

  7

  From that day forward, we spent more time away from the kennel. There were a lot of people out there who needed to be Found. Sometimes they were adults and sometimes children. Sometimes they were scared. Sometimes they were confused or, like Marilyn, not really aware that they were lost. But most were happy to see us.

  Sometimes we would ride on airplanes or helicopters. “You’re a chopper dog, Ellie!” Jakob always told me when we took off. The first time the noise made me nervous, but after that I understood that airplanes and helicopters were something like the truck—they got us to where Work needed to be done. The humming that I could hear and even feel through the metal floor started to make me drowsy after a time or two, and I’d usually doze off. When I woke up, Jakob and I would go to Work.

  One day Jakob took me in the truck to the biggest pond I’d ever seen. There were a lot of people there, but a man and a woman ran toward the truck when we pulled up, talking frantically before Jakob even let me out of the cage. The woman pulled a limp purple sweatshirt from a big bag over her shoulder, and Jakob held it down for me to smell.

  “Can your dog really…,” the woman began, sounding like she was about to cry. “I mean, we’re not even sure how long it’s been. I thought for sure Charlotte was playing with a few other kids down by the water, and then when I looked up she wasn’t there. They didn’t even remember seeing her leave.” Now the woman was crying for real and the man put an arm around her.

  “Ellie’s very good,” Jakob said calmly. “We just need to let her do her job. Find, Ellie!”

  I sniffed the sweatshirt deeply. Sunscreen … salt … ketchup … a smudge of ice cream … strawberry-smelling shampoo … and little girl. Now I knew who I was searching for.

  I put my nose down to the sand. It smelled … different. I’d tracked people across grass, dirt, sidewalks, and roads. But this was something new. Everything smelled damp and salty, and there was a strong, wet, powerful scent of seaweed in the air, threatening to swallow up the fragile smell of little girl.

  And there were crisscrossing smells of people everywhere. They had been walking all over this sand, coming in and out of the water. I smelled rubber shoes and bare skin and food. So much food! Someone was grilling hot dogs. Jakob sometimes cooked those on the stove and let me have a taste. So delicious! It was hard to resist the temptation to lift my head up and take in a big breath of that lovely smell, but I kept my head down. I was Working.

  I paced back and forth, making my way down toward the water. It was very strange water. The smell of salt from it was strong. I’d thought that the fountain Jakob had jumped into was big, but this—it was huge, and it moved. It growled, too, as though it were angry. I would rather have stayed far away from it, but the girl’s trail was leading right toward it. I had to follow.

  Then the water, to my surprise, swept up close to my paws! I’d been following the trail right across the sand, and all of a sudden the water rolled up to me and then back. The smell had been washed away. I jumped back in surprise.

  “It’s okay, Ellie,” Jakob said. He’d followed close behind me. “Find.”

  That wasn’t fair, the water coming up to wash the smell away! Irritated, I set to Work harder. The trail must be somewhere. I found it again in less than a minute. The little girl had been wandering close to the water’s edge. The water kept moving, trying to trick me, but every time I lost the trail I found it again. My nose stayed right down near the sand.

  “Doggy! Doggy!” a high voice said, and little hands were patting me. A tiny boy grabbed at my fur and giggled. His hands were sticky with salty water and drips from a Popsicle, and ordinarily I would have licked them clean.

  “Will he bite?” asked a woman nervously.

  “She won’t bite, but she’s working,” Jakob said from behind me. “Could you please—”

  But I could already tell this wasn’t the child I was supposed to Find. So I gently walked around him and kept going, moving quicker and quicker. Jakob was falling behind.

  Something round landed in the sand beside me, and I looked up, startled. “Fetch!” a teenage boy yelled. I nosed at the thing. It was hard and plastic and looked like it might be nice to chew, but it wasn’t Work. I kept going.

  The girl’s smell left the water. I followed it up the sloping sand and felt it growing stronger. I looked up to see a playground with more young humans than I had ever seen running wildly around. They slid down slides and climbed up ladders, just as I had learned to do. But they didn’t seem to treat it as seriously as Work should be treated. They were playing, and making a lot of noise doing it.

  The tracks of so many children crossed and crisscrossed the sand, and the smell I was following was buried. I paced back and forth, turning in a half circle. Where had it gone? I lifted my nose and tried the air. She was close; she must be close. I’d find the smell again if I just didn’t give up.

  And I did! There she was, sitting on a seesaw with a little boy at the other end. She flew up in the air, giggling, and then thumped down in the sand. I turned back to Jakob. “Show me!” he said, looking at my face.

  I dashed across the playground. “Dog!” “Doggy!” “Can I pet your dog!” children called out as I ran. The girl thumped down in the sand, bouncing on her seat, as I came up to her.

  Jakob followed me. “Charlotte?” he said. “Are you Charlotte?”

  “Uh-huh.” The little girl looked up and laughed. “I want to play at the playground!” she shouted happily. “I want to stay!”

  When Charlotte was back with her parents (her mother cried some more and Charlotte cried when her parents said she had to leave the playground and go home), Jakob snapped my leash on and scratched behind my ears. “Want to play in the ocean, Ellie?” he asked.

  He took me down to the water. It kept sneaking up and trying to get me wet. I jumped back and barked, and once I tried to bite the bubbly white water that swirled over my paws. Jakob actually chuckled a little. It was a happier sound than I had ever heard from him before.

  He found a stick and tossed it in the shallow water. Cautiously, I waded out to get it. The water sloshed around my feet and brushed against the fur on my belly, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. I felt anxious, though, worried Jakob might go out in the water and sink in it. The thought was frightening. I snatched the stick up, tasted salt and wood, and raced back to Jakob, splashing all the way.

  For once, there was a real smile on his face. “This is the ocean, Ellie. The ocean!” he told me, and threw more sticks unti
l I was running in without any hesitation to get them, dashing in and out of the waves, wet from nose to tail. I was happy. Jakob was not going to sink—he remained safely on the shore, grinning. I felt that thing that had such a tight clench on Jakob’s heart loosen, just a little, as we played.

  8

  Gypsy was not at the kennel the next day, but Cammie was. I tried to get him interested in a glorious game of I’ve Got the Ball and You Don’t, but he just lay with his head on his paws, watching me tolerantly.

  Then Jakob came out into the yard. “Ellie!” he called.

  I’d never heard such urgency in his voice. I dropped the ball at once and ran to the gate so that he could let me out. We were obviously going to Work, and Work sounded more important than ever.

  Jakob hurried with me to the truck, and we drove. The tires made screeching sounds that I could hear above the wail of the siren when we turned the corners. I had to lie down flat, my claws digging into the floor of my cage, to keep from sliding around.

  When the truck jerked to a stop, I could see people gathered in a parking lot. That wasn’t unusual. People often came to watch Jakob and me Work. But these people were more worried than I’d ever seen. One of them, a woman, was so afraid she couldn’t stand up, and two people were holding her. Anxiety was rippling off Jakob, so strong it made the fur on my back stand up.

  Jakob left me in my cage and ran past me to talk to the people. I waited, whining a little, very softly. Something was wrong, very wrong. The only way to make it better was to go to Work right away.

  We were in a parking lot next to a big building with glass doors. The frightened woman reached into a bag and took out a soft, floppy toy. It had long ears like a rabbit, and most of the fur had been rubbed off.

  “We’ve got the mall locked down,” somebody said.

  Jakob came to the door of my cage and opened it. He handed me the floppy rabbit to sniff. “Ellie, okay? Got it? I need you to Find, Ellie!”