Departing Marine finds a temporary home for his 170-pound dog
MENIFEE ---- Gunnery Sgt. Carl Cole has had a lot on his mind since volunteering to spend a year in Iraq.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/16/news/californian/22_46_192_15_07.txt
February 15, 2007
By: CATHY REDFERN - For The Californian
The 37-year-old Marine from Menifee has a wife and three daughters, ages 1, 3 and 10, a house to put on the market and other concerns to put to rest before shipping out later this month.
And then there's the dog.
The family dog is really the Marine's dog ---- the one Cole calls his boy.
The Old English mastiff, Jake, weighs a humongous 170 pounds.
Four years ago, he was an 8-pound Christmas gift from Cole's wife, Kathryn. The gift was a surprise that came one year after their marriage, when the couple was expecting their first child. He said he could not stop smiling when he saw the puppy and has loved him ever since.
So, in October, when Cole volunteered for duty in Iraq, the couple agonized over what to do with Jake. They decided to appeal to the community to care for him for a year, a necessary move in part because Kathryn needs to travel to Hungary to see her mother, who recently had a heart attack.
The Coles placed an ad in The PennySaver seeking a foster family. It ran twice.
And yes, ma'am, they got some calls ---- about 200, Cole said.
"It's been mostly dog lovers and Marines," he said. "Well, actually, it's been all kinds of people."
An 81-year-old man wanted to help, even though his wife was ill with Alzheimer's disease; another caller offered a mansion in Pasadena; one just loved mastiffs and had kept a previous dog's ashes in the house after it died.
Cole held out for a loving family similar to his own, with some space for the dog. And he thinks he has found it. Tonight, Jake is to have a trial run, or "sleepover" as Kathryn calls it, with a family in De Luz. A final decision on the dog's foster parents will be made Saturday, Cole said, adding that he is very humbled by all the people who offered to help.
"I feel like it's been some kind of quest," he said. "But I needed to find that one family that if something happens to me. ... I just want to know he's with a family and will be OK."
Cole visited 15 prospective homes after fielding many calls and whittling down the prospects with some questions over the phone. Then, a few days ago, Jake was stepped on by a horse on one visit. The $500 bill for stitching and casting his leg has taken the money Cole set aside for extra supplies to take to Iraq.
"I had no other choice," Cole said with a shrug. "You know, he's my boy. I'm not going to let him go."
He added, "He deserves it. He's always taking care of me."
Cole said Jake protected him from a pack of coyotes one night when the two were walking in an undeveloped area of Temecula. The coyotes were surrounding them, Cole said, and Jake's size and threatening manner scared them away.
But the dog is gentle and loving, he said, and even listens to the neighbors.
Cole will be in Iraq for one year, patrolling in a small team for the seventh deployment of his career. He politely declined to be more specific. He has lived in Menifee for two years, commuting to Camp Pendleton, and has been stationed in California for most of his 17 years in the Marine Corps. He was born in Saigon; his mother is Vietnamese and his father is a veteran and a Texan.
The family plans to settle near a base in North Carolina after Cole returns from Iraq, with Jake. And yes, people do comment about how emotional the soldier is about his dog, Cole said. He said he believes in loyalty.
"I must sound like a wet blanket, but look at him," he said. "He listens. He's obedient. He's like a good Marine. And he would do if for me if he could."
Willa Bagwell, the executive director of Animal Friends of the Valleys, said she wishes more people would be as responsible as Cole when needing to give up a dog. Bagwell said the Lake Elsinore shelter would not have trouble placing a pure-bred mastiff, but there are lots of challenges in placing large dogs in a timely manner.
About 39 percent of the shelter's adoptable dogs were euthanized last year, she said, a figure everyone is hopeful will decrease with a new regional shelter planned in Wildomar.
"I truly commend them for taking the time to find a proper home for this animal," she said.
Bagwell appealed to people to consider providing a short-term foster home for shelter dogs. She admitted that can be difficult emotionally and surely will be for the family who takes in Jake.
Cole said he is grateful not to have to leave the dog dilemma with his wife, who will be dealing with enough without him.
"I'm going to miss my girls tremendously," he said.
Kathryn Cole said she will continue to run her own real estate and home loan business and try to keep her children's lives as normal as possible during the transition.
"I try not to think about it, and I'll try not to watch the news," she said. "I'll just do my best and pray and keep going to church. ... The wife of a Marine. I've got to suck it up."
She paused and added that maybe she shouldn't say that.
Her husband reassured her.
"It's OK," he said. "People know."