THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607020146
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG BURT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 69 lines
Firemen have their Dalmatians. Rescue workers their Saint Bernards. Dredging shops now have their German shepherds - at least the Virginia Beach shop on Bells Road does.
Adopted by the shop after apparently being abandoned, a lean tan and brown female shepherd now spends her days keeping her owners abreast of any visitor or cat venturing onto the property. No one person owns her, yet she isn't lacking in love or attention.
``She lies down like she has always lived here,'' said Sidney Ray Midgett, a 26-year dredging veteran. As he spoke, the dog the crew calls Rudee - after the inlet they dredge year round - was lying down close by. ``She comes in, everybody pets her and she lies down on the floor just like she is one of the group,'' he said.
It wasn't long after her arrival last winter that Rudee's friendly disposition won her a permanent spot as the shop mascot. Now every Thursday the 12 dredging employees and some of the marine police officers, who also work out of the building, take up a collection for Rudee's food. Midgett, who travels to work from his home in Corolla, N.C., is one of the main employees making sure Rudee is fed.
``When that dog is hungry, she is hungry,'' he said. ``She will follow you around until you feed her.'' She eats two cans of Alpo a day and food scraps from employee lunches, but Rudee's ribs are still visible. Midgett said he thinks that all the running she does keeps her thin.
Midgett, 55, and owner of a chubby Yorkshire terrier and 25 cats, has a soft spot for animals. When he first saw Rudee five months ago, he could tell she had been someone's pet. She would sit on command, retrieve a ball and was friendly with everyone. ``She looks fierce and sounds fierce, but she is really a lamb,'' said Midgett.
It was 40 degrees, a wet winter day last February, when Lonnie Gregory, the shop operation's supervisor, first spotted the gaunt and filthy German shepherd wandering out of the woods. The dog hung around the two-story brick building awhile, before someone let her in and gave her something to eat. ``She seemed to take to everybody and everybody seemed to take to her,'' he said. A collection was taken up for her tags and a trip to the veterinarian.
She was treated for heart worms, given a rabies shot and weighed in at 50 pounds. When the veterinarian went to spay her, to his surprise, he found that the job had already been done.
About three months later, Rudee's adoptive owners found out a bit more about her. A woman was visiting the shop one day, recognized the dog and said she knew the family who owned her. Yet when she went to tell the family the ``good news,'' she discovered that the father had deliberately let the dog go and told his children their dog had run away, Midgett said. ``I thought the owner would have a change of heart. But he hasn't.''
In the meantime, Rudee has avoided starvation, being hit by a car or euthanasia, the fate of many abandoned dogs, and seems perfectly content to stay where she is, spending her nights sleeping under one of the shop's indoor work benches. Frank Wade, a dredging employee, tried to take her home once to stay in his backyard, but Rudee went ``wild'' and wouldn't stay put, Midgett said.
Rudee never goes outside the fenced in property. ``She follows trucks out, but only 20 feet beyond the gate, then stops,'' said Midgett. Although she is skittish about riding on the dredging rig, Rudee seems satisfied to guard the home base and provide company and friendship to owners after a long day on the inlet. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
Supervisor Lonnie Gregory, left, Frank Wade and Al Bevan are among
the Rudee Inlet dredge shop employees who care for Rudee, the German
shepherd, who was taken in after being abandoned by her owner. by CNB