Sophie, Dog Overboard : The Incredible True Adventures of the Castaway Dog (33 page)

Life is pretty sweet since Sophie got home. Jan and Dave are no longer empty nesters, they have two adorable dogs living with them and providing plenty of entertainment. Every afternoon around four, the energy level starts to rise around the house as Sophie and Ruby gather themselves from whatever they've been doing. Their body clock is telling them it's that time: walk time. If they're at the screen door because they've been asked to go outside for a while, Ruby hovers with the tip of her nose touching the screen, as Sophie stands alongside her looking down the stairs, feigning that she's not nearly as concerned as her silly sister. If it's teeming with rain, Dave does his best to ignore them, as he can't
look them in the eye and then not take them out. Most days, as Jan puts her sneakers on, Ruby leaps in circles and bounds under their feet as they come down the stairs, in anticipation of that gate opening; not for someone to leave them but for the girls to head out into the world. The four Griffiths take off down the road. If Jan takes Sophie, she spends most of her time winding the lead tighter around her hand to try to keep her within walking distance. Just like old times.

“Cesar Millan says you must be in control of your dog,” she says. “I don't think I've quite got that down.”

Later, at dinnertime all the family are present: Jan and Dave and “the girls.” As Jan and Dave sit down to eat, both dogs sit to attention, backs to each other like the hands of a clock: Ruby looking up at one food-bearing owner, Sophie at the other.

Who is going to drop their plate first?

As Jan and Dave negotiate their plates of food, a stack of crispy potato edges and bones (with sneaky bits of meat left on them) begins to pile up on the side of each of their plates. Often Jan can't resist and drops both her hands down to feel Ruby gently remove a chunk of
coq au vin
from one hand and Sophie snap a chicken piece from the other.

Sophie and Ruby have several insider routines and despite Sophie's frequent weariness at Ruby's frivolity, as time passes, Sophie seems to become more attached to her sister. When Dave or Jan drive through the gate, they'll see Ruby run out to the backyard and come back
with Sophie trailing behind her.
They're home!
the red dog seems to have informed the blue dog. Dave often comes down the stairs in an afternoon to find the girls wrestling. Ruby will bound over to where Sophie is lying comfortably curled, and nudge her head into Sophie's neck. The two will roll over and interlock forelegs. Sophie bares her teeth and locks her jaw around Ruby's, then proceeds to lick and snarl at the same time. All the while, the thud of Ruby's tail on the ground continues as Ruby bulldozes her head or her nose further into Sophie.

While Ruby still plays second fiddle to her older sister, she has also benefitted from the ways Sophie continues to carve out domestic bliss. When Sophie first returned from the islands, Ruby was still a boisterous pup and Sophie, flopped on the rug inside, couldn't help going in to bat for her. Sophie would every now and again raise her head and look out at Ruby. Sometimes this seemed to be a tease, but over time Sophie would occasionally go to the door and touch her nose to the screen and look back at Jan or Dave as if to say,
we should probably let her in too, no?
It didn't take long for Jan and Dave to cave and these days Ruby enjoys most of Sophie's privileges.

When it comes to bedtime, each dog takes their respective armchair, Ruby on the left, Sophie on the right. Ruby still sometimes tries her luck at getting the sofa instead of the armchair for the night. She also loves to play the game of “sleep on Sophie's chair,” a trick that earns her endless reprimands from Jan, and especially from Dave. She will slide off the armchair and onto the couch, then off the
couch as she looks at Dave, opening his mouth to yell again, and finally climb onto her own armchair. Sometimes, Dave will walk into the living room to find Sophie standing at the foot of her armchair looking up at Ruby, who is sitting on it, wagging her tail. Sophie's tail will be laid out behind her, somewhere between a wag and a threat, as if to say,
you've got ten seconds, no more.

Sophie, of course, gets what is rightfully hers and none of it seems to deter either Ruby or Dave, who will happily play the game with both dogs every night. Dave is even more of a softie than he was before Sophie went overboard. In Sophie's lifetime, he's gone from disciplinary stickler to mush. From a man who believed that a dog's place was out in the yard, to a man who will patter out of bed when he can't get to sleep and stand in the doorway just gazing at Sophie as she snores and croons, always thrilled that she's being watched by the man she is most loyal to.

“There's my girl, hey?” Dave will say, leaning in the kitchen doorframe in his boxer shorts, one bare foot propped on top of another. He'll cross his arms and rub his shoulders, all the while looking at Sophie as she sleeps. She might lift her head and stretch it around to look back at Dave. The end of her tail will move and, as he comes over to her, she'll lick her lips in anticipation of the affection she knows she's in for. Dave will pat her softly between the eyes or rub her behind the ears with both hands as she grunts from the back of her throat and the tip of her tongue moves in and out in appreciation.

Sophie isn't a normal dog. She's achieved a totally unprecedented feat, one that Dave and Jan never expected to be a part of. She has exhibited freakish endurance and loyalty to levels that no amount of dog science could have prepared them for. And she's become a bit of a star because of it. The whirlwind of TV, newspapers and magazines worldwide, a film in the offing and even this book, all celebrating this astonishing, yet seemingly ordinary, family dog.

To this day, there is a framed photo of her in the Mackay rangers' office, Jan's handwriting scribbled across it announcing, “I've gone domestic!” Nowhere is she more a star, though, than in her own home, where she's living (as the magazine articles said when she returned from the islands) a dog's life.

“They're dogs; they don't ask for much compared with what they give in return,” says Dave these days. “So we should just give them what they want.”

The Griffiths will never know what Sophie went through out there, the exact details of her extraordinary journey. They wish they could ask her sometimes. But when she looks up at them with those trusting eyes and that soft, blinking gaze, they think they know one thing: that the loyalty and love between owners and dog, and the bond that always felt just that bit more special with Sophie than with other dogs, somehow brought about a miracle.

 

 

 

 

 

This book belongs to so many people and quite a lot of places:

The Griffiths. For so many reasons, their love for Sophie above all. My life will never be the same with you all in it. I do believe you were a family born to be written about.

I could stop there, but I won't.

To my mom, a dog lover if ever there was one who thought it would be nice for me to come home for a while to write. Regret it, much? Love you, Mom. To Rob, also whose Internet connection I deeply offended throughout and whose red wine supplies I not so sneakily depleted. And to Ionela Cornhill to whom I can now say, “Yes, I've finished the book yet!”

To Dad and Sue whose “Never Give Up” emails with that overused picture of the pelican and the frog actually do work on me. Thanks, Dad. To Lisa and Martin,
who continue to (attempt to) make a Fair Lady out of me.

To Erin Hosier, who all but dropped this whole enterprise into my lap and whose “take heart” got me through many early days of uncertainty and then final days of editing (and uncertainty).

To my editors—and there were several. To Lisa Highton and Renee Sedliar, first and foremost, who believed first in Sophie and this book and got it—and me—over the finishing line. To Deonie Fiford and Helen Coyle who taught me so much, both with such a light touch. My future writing owes itself to you two, I do believe. And to Valerie Appleby, working behind the scenes and no doubt a future queen of publishing.

To John and Lauren at Oscar's Café, for me a little piece of Brooklyn in Mackay.

To all the dogs in my life especially, though Molly, Chloe, Lucy, Molly (another one), and Oscar, who were there throughout the duration of writing and provided much inspiration, never failing to make me laugh spontaneously out loud, coo, wonder deeply and talk like a fool.

To Briana and James at Shots of Happy for being naughtily awesome as well as interested and for making the best soy latte in Forster, NSW.

To Byron Bay.

To a handful of great, enduring friends in my life who I hope know who they are and so don't need to be named.

To Steve and Oscar: best dog-to-Dad dog bond ever.

To the Mackay-based rangers at Queensland Marine Parks and Wildlife who cared about the mysterious blue dog way beyond their call of duty. To Andrea Dobbyn, a patient and efficient go-between for this pesky, constantly on-deadline journalist and the rangers who were just going about their lives.

To Peter Berck, whom I wish I could have known better.

To St. Bees island.

To Bill Ellis, Sean Fitzgibbon and Jason Wimmer, who taught me what little I know about fuzzy gray bums and corrupted me while I was supposed to be working. Bill, I'll beat you in dice, yet.

To the residents of Keswick Island for living where they do and caring about the elusive blue dog. Especially to Brian and Lyn Kinderman and Jero Andrews, without whom Sophie's story would be an even bigger mystery.

To Ruby, who is one heartstoppingly good-looking and infectious dog.

Most of all, to Sophie, the most dignified dog anyone is likely to encounter.

 

 

 

Most of the photographs are from the Griffith family collection. Additional sources: Corbis/photo Matthieu Paley p. 11 below. Hodder & Stoughton/photo Daryl Wright p. 1, p. 15 below, p. 16. Brian and Lyn Kinderman/Keswick Island Guest House p. 7, p. 8 below. Koala Research Centre of Central Queensland p. 11 center right. Emma Pearse p. 6, p. 9, p. 10, p. 12 above. Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM)/photo Steve Burke p. 12 below. Rex Features/photo Daryl Wright p. 13 center and below. Jason Wimmer p. 11 above right. Daryl Wright p. 8 above.

 

 

 

photograph © Steve Trudgeon

EMMA PEARSE is an Australian journalist who lived in New York for over ten years, where she wrote for
New York, Slate, Salon,
and
Village Voice
, among others. Emma now lives and works between Australia and New York.
Sophie
is her first book.

 

 

 

Sophie's journey is one triumphant example of the loyalty and physical endurance that dogs can exhibit. In researching Sophie's story, I was assisted by many wonderful works of research, analysis and anecdote by behaviorists, scientists, trainers, dog owners and authors far more expert on the life and mind of dogs than myself. Below is a list of books, far from exhaustive, that can help any dog lover understand their domestic animals.

Emma Pearse