Early September, 2019, the kids were finally back in school and Michelle and I went out for our first run together in what felt forever. A little over a mile in, we hit the north end of Pelham Bay Park, from which we had our choice of a couple paths to ramble. Michelle tends toward pavement, and I to dirt. That day we did it her way, down the bike trail along Shore Road. About ten minutes in we heard high-pitched barking from a ragged strip of forest between the road and golf course. It was a kind of marshy area of small trees, the forest floor pretty well covered with poison ivy. It didn’t seem a likely place for a dog.
She was about fifty feet back into the trees, barking desperately. When I approached, she backed away, but not far. I took a picture and threw it up on the Parents of Pelham Facebook group to see if anyone had lost a dog. Then found that I couldn’t leave it at that, so I sat down on the path and set about trying to get her to come to me. Michelle suggested that if I got her to come over I might fashion a leash from the belt of my running backpack, which I dismissed as unworkable.
Michelle opted to do a few more miles while I figured out what to do. I called 311 and was assured that someone from the city would come to pick her up (they never did). While waiting, I ventured into the woods and sat on a stump for a while, talking to her, then backed off to the path again. Eventually she approached the stump and gave it a good sniff. I must have left evidence of my harmlessness there because soon she joined me on the path. On closer inspection, she was a total mess. Emaciated and hairless, covered with insect bites, and half the skin of her nose was missing.
While I waited for Michelle to return, a woman pulled her car over beside the path. She said she’d seen the dog there earlier that morning and couldn’t stop thinking about her, so she’d come back. After a chat she drove off and then came back again maybe 15 minutes later with a pile of cheese slices, which she assured me was great food for a starving dog, so I fed them to her and she wolfed them down. At this point it occurred to me that using my belt for a leash was actually a great idea, so I did so. Michelle returned and then ran home to get the truck. We called the first vet in the Google and they agreed to let us bring her straight there. When Michelle arrived with the truck, the dog was pretty excited to get in, and I rode in the back with her to the vet, only a few miles away.
Everyone at the clinic was lovely, particularly the vet. He found that she had a chip identifying her as Bella, and he contacted her owner, a woman with an address in the Bronx. He gave her meds for worms and bugs and kept her for the next week. I visited every day, and the kids came with me a few times as well. The owner never responded, and we heard from a couple people that it’s not unusual for folks from the Bronx to dump unwanted pets in Pelham Bay Park. As it happens I once found the remains of a cat wrapped in an old rug on another trail down there. So I guess it happens. In any event, at the end of the week we picked her up and brought her home. Everyone agreed that we should give her a new name, as we didn’t know what her associations would be with the old one, and the kids dubbed her Penny. The day we picked her up, the vet had had her groomed at the doggie spa next door. Both they and the vet absolutely refused any payment. It was a heartening experience.
The kids were over the moon about having a dog. Emlen had been asking for one for a while, but Michelle and I had both been quite adamant that it was not in the cards, at least while we were living in the suburbs. And we certainly never imagined that if we did get a dog that it would be a Shih Tzu. But as it turned out, she was a wonderful addition to the family, and we felt really fortunate to have had her come into our lives just before the pandemic. She was a warm and loving creature. Super friendly, sweet and well behaved. She’s of a size that the kids can generally take care of her, including taking her for walks. As she put on some weight, she eased up on her attempts to eat just about everything one might find on a sidewalk (including some rather foul unmentionables), and her hair grew out impressively. She had a hard time with New York winter, so Michelle bought her a couple sweaters. Though I remain of the opinion that dog clothing is ridiculous, Penny clearly loved wearing them.
Though she was never nuts about walking around the neighborhood in Pelham, she thrived during our time in Maine and Vermont, and would do six or seven mile hikes with us no problem (there were times that I had to carry her, but that was more about terrain than lack of athleticism).
As we worked through the process of moving to New Zealand, it became clear that getting Penny here was going to be one of the most difficult parts. Not to mention expensive. When I first learned of the price tag, I raised the possibility that we might find Penny a new home. The kids both cried for a half-hour. The next time I brought it up, Maika asked if I’d get rid of her next, and pointed out that we’d paid far more money for our house. Michelle was firmly in the kids’ camp.
I started Penny’s travel prep too late, not realizing that the necessary government approvals would require many months, so the best-case scenario was that she would be able to join us in March, a month after our scheduled flight. Then in January, Air New Zealand stopped transporting pets altogether, which left us in even more of a bind. As a short-nosed dog, she would not be able to fly domestically in the hold – she had to ride in the cabin, which meant she had to be accompanied on the first leg of the trip (there are currently no direct flights from NYC to NZ). Ultimately, we decided to take her with us on our flight to California, where Michelle’s dad and stepmom met us at the airport. They took care of Penny for a couple months and coordinated the last few vet appointments with the pet transport company.
In March, Air New Zealand lifted its embargo and the pet transport company was finally able to make for Penny’s travel to New Zealand. She made the 13-hour flight to Auckland, then had ten days of quarantine in a kennel near the airport. We drove back to Auckland and picked her up on April 20.
The first few days back with us must have been pretty disorienting for her, and God knows what she made of all the travel and transitions. We stayed a few days at an AirBnB in the city, then drove to Opotiki, a lovely little beach town on the Bay of Plenty, where we spent a few days swimming, surfing and taking long walks on the beach. I imagine all of this was rather disorienting for her.
It was good to finally get her back to Gisborne and her new home. The kids are thrilled to have her back with us, and she seems to enjoy the new environment. The first time we took her to the beach here she gorged on seaweed, which worried us a bit but seems to have done her no harm. We figure after her time in the woods we can probably trust her foraging instincts.
Her instincts with respect to roads remain somewhat less impressive. Gisborne dogs are a bit more free range than their American counterparts, and seem for the most part quite skilled at not getting run over. You don’t see a lot of leashes here, except on trails where they’re required. Penny’s probably not destined for that degree of freedom.
A couple months after her arrival, she seems to have settled in really happily. The transition to treats made of kangaroo and kiwi fruits went smoothly. The cold’s not so much an issue here, but she rather hates walks in the rain and wind. The morning of the winter solstice, I walked her at about 6 a.m. in the dark and wind, between downpours. Penny handled it despite being blown off her feet a couple times. She has yet to experience an earthquake, but honestly, given what she’s been through, there’s probably not much that’s going to shake her at this point.
From NY to NZ 