Of course, that could not happen! I “armed” myself with a baggie of milkbones and trotted over to one of the neighbor’s yard where the dog seemed to be staying and plopped myself down on the curb. I talked to her and tossed milkbones in her general direction. At first, I positioned the milkbones closer to where she was standing. I slowly tossed the milkbones closer to me so that she didn’t realize that she was being drawn in. After an hour and a half, she finally got close enough and allowed me to pet her head. She wasn’t sure about the contact so ran back to the middle of the yard. I picked up my milkbones and came back home.
I went back a couple of hours later. When she saw me, she started wagging her tail but still wouldn't come up to me. After another hour of milkbones, she finally got to point where she would let me pet her head, her back, her belly. When I got up to come home, she followed me and after another 30 minutes of coaxing her, I got her inside the wrought iron fence area.
Unfortunately, she was really thin, and before I could secure the area, she was able to squeeze through the railings and ran back to the other neighbor’s yard.
I just couldn’t get her off my mind so around 9:30 that night, I got more milkbones and headed down the street. As soon as she saw me, she came running across the street to greet me. She came right up and let me pet her without the milkbones. I stayed with her about 30 minutes, talking to her and petting her.. When I returned home, she followed me right through the wrought iron gate on into our back yard behind the wooden fence. My husband was able to close that gate as well – for the time being, she was safe and sound.
We gave her some real food, a bowl of water, and put some blankets on the patio for her. It was the middle of November so the weather was a bit chilly. I got so tickled because my husband wrapped himself and her up one of the blankets and laid outside with her, keeping her company for almost an hour!
The next morning when we went out to check on her, she greeted us with excited twirls, tail wagging, and smiles!
As we already had Spencer and Katie, we knew we couldn’t keep her so our goal was to find her a home. We posted signs to try to find her owner, listed her as a "found dog" on petfinder.com, and posted signs in local stores.
I took her to see Dr. Joe. He examined her and declared her to be healthy. She was part black lab and probably had some Chow in her, which he said, would make it very difficult to find her another home. At some point, her tail was broken and she had already had one litter of pups. He suggested that we get her spayed before finding her a home. He would give us “shelter” rates so that instead of finding her a “free”’ home, we could just charge whoever wanted her the discounted spay rate.
Well, as you already know, we succeeded in finding the dog a GREAT home and named her Elie.
Heaven only knows what all this dog went through before she got to us.
Although neither Mike nor Dr. Joe will tell me for sure, I suspect Elie was pregnant again when she was spayed. So, she was not only trying to adjust to a new home but she was extremely hormonal!
Whatever else poor Elie went through is anyone’s guess. She knew nothing about kisses or how to play. When Katie and Spencer got rowdy, running and playing – she would jump in the middle of them, like she was trying to stop a fight! It was also very clear that she was clueless about toys!
I think because of the hormones, Elie was preparing for her litter by turning her blanket into a nest. After that, she would sneak Spencer’s football over to her blanket under the den window and curl herself around it with her back towards the outside. | 
