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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2016
Lost and found mutt highlights need for walkers, adopters
ization is equally important.
That goes for cats, too. One
kind soul, said Tokarz, has
volunteered to help with some
half-feral kittens, just touch-
ing and interacting with them.
“That’s a huge help to us,”
Tokarz said.
Tokarz admits that social
media is not really her bag, but
when it comes to missing pets,
as a tool, she said, the online
message board cannot be beat.
Within hours, hundreds
had shared the link about Pep-
per. “It went viral,” said one
volunteer.
It also helps, Tokarz said, to
live in a town that cares about
its pets.
“It’s kind of amazing how
this community is,” Tokarz
said. “There were so many
shares, and so many people out
looking for her.”
Pepper was
likely pinched
from shelter
By DAVID PLECHL
EO Media Group
L
ONG BEACH, Wash.
— Volunteer dog walk-
ers are indispensable to
almost any animal shelter. But
when a young couple trotted
off with an adorable 5-year-old
red heeler recently, they didn’t
come trotting back.
Staff and volunteers at the
South Paciic County Humane
Society in Long Beach were
in disbelief. Saddened, they
feared Pepper had been
pinched.
Staff quickly turned to
social media and printed liers,
replete with photos showing
Pepper’s big wet nose poking
at the camera.
“We just want her returned
safely, we are not interested in
how or why she was lost or not
returned,” the poster read.
Shelter manager Sara
Tokarz said three young
women had seen the “Lost
Dog” post on Facebook and
took to the streets to search for
Pepper last week, as did many
others.
The trio eventually spotted
the pooch and confronted the
couple who were cooperative
and handed over the dog. Pep-
per was then delivered back to
the shelter, much to the relief
of worried staff and volunteers.
Rare event
Tokarz has been with the
shelter for about two years and
said something similar had
never happened before on her
watch. Board members also
said they couldn’t recall any
dog thefts.
The incident highlights
some of the challenges animal
shelters face as they work hard
to ind suitable homes while
they also aim to extend a cer-
tain level of trust to volunteers
that play a critical role in the
overall effort of animal wel-
fare and care.
The walks provide much
needed exercise to the ken-
neled dogs, and the extra atten-
tion provides the socialization
they’ll need for adoptions to
stick.
The dog walkers who dis-
appeared with Pepper pur-
portedly said they had lost
track of time on their walk, but
intended to return the frisky
heeler the next day.
“I’d like to think it was an
Positive public
David Plechl/EO Media Group
Shelter manager Sara Tokarz gives Pepper some attention after the 5-year-old red heeler went missing with its volun-
teer dog-walkers. “I’d like to think it was an honest mistake,” said Tokarz.
honest mistake,” said Tokarz.
“Maybe they did really just
lose track of time.”
She added that, “It doesn’t
really matter at this point. It
just matters that the dog is
back.”
Tokarz said the shelter sees
a mix of long-term volunteer
dog walkers and drop-ins. She
said she doesn’t want to dis-
courage drop-ins, but stated
the board is reviewing its pol-
icies and considering revis-
ing them to prevent any more
cases of disappearing dogs.
Right now, Tokarz reports
the shelter keeps about half
a dozen regular dog walkers
busy. More regular volunteers
would help. “We can never
have enough,” said Tokarz.
She encourages people
that do want to come in and
walk dogs to take care of the
paperwork and orientation in
advance.
“We in no way want to dis-
courage people from walking
the dogs, but there does have
to be a process,” Tokarz said.
Walking the walk
On the day of Pepper’s
return, Humaira Falkenberg,
of Ilwaco, was at the shelter
to walk Fiona, a massive Sibe-
rian Husky and malamute mix.
It’s something she does many
times a week, almost always
on her lunch hour.
Sometimes, the two go run-
David Plechl/EO Media Group
Finding enough volunteers to help walk and socialize
dogs is a constant battle for shelters like the South Pacific
County Humane Society.
ning. Falkenberg appreciates a
partner that can keep up.
Other times, Fiona even
stays the night. “That allows
her to be socialized in a home,”
Falkenberg said.
Falkenberg paused on a
walk to answer some ques-
tions as Fiona tugged this way
and that. One stern command
and the big dog was sitting
(almost) placidly.
“She’s a really sweet dog,”
Falkenberg explained, “but she
needs training.”
Falkenberg knows. She
once owned a Siberian Husky,
just like Fiona.
The breed, she said, have
an independent streak, but they
also need a lot of exercise to be
calm. That means Fiona has to
be worked every day, “so they
can’t be an ornament dog.”
Picturesque Pepper
Tokarz was reluctant to
speculate why Pepper may
have been targeted. She said
the medium-sized dog is prob-
ably not a purebred, but, “she’s
a very unique looking dog.”
Pepper is great with peo-
ple and children, Tokarz said,
but doesn’t get on well with
other dogs. That was a concern
when Pepper’s whereabouts
were unknown.
Safely back at the shel-
ter, the 5-year-old red heeler
looked in good spirits, wag-
gling her tail as volunteers pet-
ted her thick spotted coat. Pep-
per stiffened to attention when
some curious crows landed in
a ield nearby.
Tokarz said Pepper has
proven to be well-behaved,
even when left alone in a
home. She can be taken on
runs and loves affection. But
it would be best, Tokarz said,
if she were an “only dog,” and
probably shouldn’t be around
chickens or other pet birds.
“She’d really make a won-
derful pet,” said Tokarz.
“They’re
herding
dogs.
They’re smart dogs.”
Currently the shelter
houses 19 pups and has 21
kennels. “We’re pretty full,”
said Tokarz.
Pepper was originally
under the care of the Har-
bor Animal Volunteer Asso-
ciation, a largely foster-based
program out of Raymond that
does not have a shelter proper.
Tokarz said one of her volun-
teers that was involved with
both programs had suggested
Pepper might have a greater
potential for adoption if she
could be seen by more people.
That brought Pepper to the
peninsula.
The shelter depends on vol-
unteer and membership sup-
port. Reasonable adoption fees
cover some operating costs,
including care and vaccina-
tions for the animals.
But Tokarz said the shel-
ter’s needs extend well
beyond dog-walking. Social-
Sandy Clancy, South
Paciic County Humane Soci-
ety board president, said inter-
actions with the public are
indispensable, and almost
always positive.
Kittens need cuddling.
Dogs need walking. And peo-
ple need pets.
Clancy said the shel-
ter abides by a system where
interested dog walkers ill out
an application, read a hand-
book, sign their name to an
agreement, and in some cases,
receive additional informa-
tion or training from a more
experienced staff member or
volunteer.
That’s normally how it
would work, said Clancy, but
admitted personnel can be
stretched, and trust had per-
haps eclipsed the more ideal
protocol in Pepper’s case.
“We didn’t do the things
that needed to be done,”
Clancy said, adding that more
information should have been
collected before Pepper was
allowed to parade away.
Lesson learned, Clancy
said.
From now on, “they will
need to go through all of our
procedures.” Which, she
added, “is better for them,
better for us, better for the
animal.”
Police had been contacted
when the dog went missing,
and notiied when the dog was
returned.
But Clancy said it’s possi-
ble the doggie disappearance
was an innocent mistake.
“Most everyone is really
good,” Clancy explained.
“We’re
just
extremely
thankful.”
Tacos: They’re the means to start a dialogue about acceptance, injustice
Continued from Page 1C
Epoch of unlearning
“Who eats at Taco Bell?,”
while not a literal ques-
tion asked by the Aguilars,
nonetheless drives the cou-
ple’s search for how people
define what it means to be
American.
Gustavo comes from
Brownsville, Texas, a city
of more than 170,000 on the
U.S.-Mexico border where
U.S. Census reports 93 per-
cent of the residents are
of Hispanic descent. The
Aguilars said that among
hundreds of taquerias in
Brownsville, they noticed
a single Taco Bell fast food
restaurant that nonetheless
has thrived.
Their interest was fur-
ther piqued when Gus-
tavo Arellano, the editor of
OC Weekly in California,
declared salsa’s overtaking
of ketchup in overall sales
in 2013 as “the manifest des-
tiny of good taste.”
“We do a lot of free asso-
ciating, so we started talking
about how it would be inter-
esting making tacos for peo-
ple along a trail … that rep-
resents manifest destiny,”
Gaelyn Aguilar said.
“Lewis and Clark’s jour-
ney was seen as an epoch
of discovery,” she said.
“Our twist is that our trip
is an epoch of unlearning”
political stances and ideas
about what it means to be
American.
The couple have cooked
their way across the west-
ern U.S., starting in Camp
DuBois, Illinois, and stop-
ping in St. Louis and Kan-
sas City, Missouri; Omaha,
Nebraska; Vermillion, South
Dakota; Washburn, North
Dakota; Helena and Mis-
soula, Montana; Boise,
Idaho; Naselle, Washington;
and Astoria.
“We’ve been in a lot of
places where they tell me
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Gaelyn Aguilar talks with residents at the River People Farmers Market.
they never eat vegetables,”
Gustavo Aguilar said.
Eating a pumpkin-seed
pesto taco can be a rather
alien experience for some-
one used to beef or chicken
in their tortillas. But Gus-
tavo said people get to know
he and Gaelyn, try a taco and
can’t believe it doesn’t have
meat.
For the Aguilars, tacos
are also the means to start a
dialogue about acceptance
and injustice in America.
Asking how Americans
can live more inclusively,
the Aguilars said they have
heard a lot about the need for
more education on multicul-
tural issues.
“Another issue raised
was the need for more edu-
cation at home,” Gaelyn
said.
Learning prejudice is
easier than teaching how to
remove it, she said. “It often
doesn’t happen until some-
one goes to college, and the
world opens up for them.”
Gathering the field notes,
photos and other materials
from each visit, Gaelyn said
she plans to write about the
trip in popular media and
curate her material in a mul-
timedia studio in Montreal,
Canada.
Now available in the
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