AUBURN – Auburn Animal Control officer Bentley Rathbun doesn’t know whether it’s a lost dog or something else that has people on both sides of the Androscoggin River talking.
They say they’ve seen a small white dog cavorting on the ice north of the Great Falls and the train bridge.
Jason Prescott of Pineland Lumber on Avon Street in Lewiston noticed the dog running along the shore about a week ago. The patrons and wait staff at Pat’s Pizza on Center Street in Auburn say the dog is a regular sight, chasing birds, drinking from open water on the river and wandering close to an island in the middle of the river.
“He’s really cute, and fun to watch,” said waitress Danielle Pelletier. “But we worry about him out there in the cold, on that little island.”
Rathbun said he has heard the calls and seen tracks in the snow but he has never laid eyes on the animal.
“That’s because, by the time I get there, he’s usually gone,” Rathbun said. “If I could just see it, I might recognize it. If I’ve had any contact with it or its owners, I’d be able to recognize it, I’m sure.”
Pelletier said she first saw the dog on Jan. 8 playing on the ice behind the pizzeria. She described it as a beagle-sized, white, short-haired terrier with black spots on its ears.
“He seems to have a good time,” she said. “He runs around all over the place and plays and chases the birds.”
It comes right up to the bank of the Androscoggin behind the restaurant but runs when anyone gets close.
“You just try to call him, and he runs away,” she said. “He’s really frightened of people.”
Employees at Pineland said the dog is so skittish that they thought it must be wild.
“I thought it was a coyote at first,” said Prescott. “It doesn’t act like a house-dog. It doesn’t stop and look when people call it. It just runs off.”
Most witnesses have seen the dog ranging around a little island in the middle of the river, but Rathbun doubts that’s where the dog spends its time.
“In this cold, it would need a burrow or something and there’s just not much cover on that island,” he said. He speculated that the dog likely had found a small hole in the banks along the Auburn side of the river. Or it could belong to someone who lives along the river.
“My biggest concern now is for the people,” Rathbun said. “If this goes on, I know someone is going to go out on the ice to try and save the dog, and that ice is just not strong enough to support a person.”
“If this goes on, I know someone is going to go out on the ice to try and save the dog, and that ice is just not strong enough to support a person.”
Bentley Rathbun
Comments are no longer available on this story