Attu's Saga -- Here's One Of Those Lost-Dog Stories That's Hard To Believe

According to the American Kennel Club standard, the Alaskan malamute is a solid, steady and enduring creature.

Add gritty and resilient, when characterizing Attu, a powerful, compact dog that survived a frightening brush with death on a Vashon Island road after being stolen from its Kodiak, Alaska, home.

The bizarre twists in the three-month Attu adventure are many and varied.

The cast of characters includes a Vashon Island fishing crew, a dedicated staff at Fair Isle Animal Clinic on Vashon, the all-volunteer Vashon Island Pet Protectors and the dog's owners, Mary White and Norman Lenon, formerly of Kodiak and now of Bothell.

Attu, while chained, was stolen off the deck of a Kodiak condominium occupied by White and Lenon in early October.

"We had him since he was 5 weeks old," says White. "He was like a son to us. We ran ads in the local newspaper, even the local radio station announced Attu's theft. We walked the streets, put up flyers. Everyone in the neighborhood knew Attu was missing. It left us with an enormously empty feeling."

Complicating matters, White and Lenon were leaving for Seattle soon - she to enroll in a community-college nursing program and he to study in a maritime school.

"All along we thought someone had him. But who? We were getting frantic with the thought of having to leave Attu behind when we left for Seattle."

Little did they know - that is, until a phone call from the Fair Isle Animal Clinic about a week later - Attu beat them here.

Attu's trip from Kodiak was fraught with frustration, however for Gerald Plancich, a Vashon Island purse-seine owner.

He explains, "I hired a kid in Kodiak to help us on the trip to Seattle. The morning we were leaving, he appeared at the dock with this dog, asking if he could bring it along. It caught me by surprise, and quite frankly I wasn't too keen on it. But I told him to bring it aboard. I never asked if it was his, I just assumed so.

Late that night, Plancich's 46-foot seiner arrived in Petersburg and the young crew member went into town, had a few drinks and was arrested for disorderly conduct.

"They were going to let him go," says Plancich, but when they ran a check on him they found something like 15 warrants out against him."

Plancich asked authorities what he should do with the dog and they suggested taking it on to Seattle. "Before we left town, I called a friend in Kodiak and asked him to place an ad in the paper and to check the local animal shelter if anyone was searching for a lost dog."

Meanwhile, Jimmy Adams, a crew member, had become quite attached to the young dog they called Sam. After arriving on Vashon, Adams and another mate, Rory Kellogg, took the dog to a small island farm where they reside.

On Oct. 10, Sam was tied to the bed of a pickup truck before the two made a trip to garbage dump. En route, the dog fell from the truck and was dragged an estimated 200 yards over a gravel roadbed. A passerby honked and alerted Kellogg, who stopped.

Sam was rushed to the veterinary clinic, where Dr. Alan Givotovsky and a four-member team began emergency treatment. "We had an office full of clients but they were all very understanding when we dropped everything to begin treating the dog," recalls Givotovsky.

"It looked like a grinder or sander had been run over his feet and legs. Every toenail on the rear legs was ground to a nub, plus there were open wounds on the upper portions of both rear legs, one of the front limbs and the belly. It was like treating a burn victim. But you know what? He never cried or whimpered."

"Gravel was embedded in bone in several sites," recalls Givotovsky. "We spent more than six hours getting him stabilized, cleansing the wounds and applying bandages to all limbs."

Three surgeries were conducted during the dog's 2 1/2-month-plus clinic stay. During the early stages of treatment, which took 1 1/2 hours daily, bandages were changed twice daily to thwart infection and hasten healing.

"He was a super patient," says Givotovsky. "He became very bonded to Cindy Polley, our veterinary technician, who took him home on a couple of weekends, for a change of scenery and socialization."

Since the dog's owner was unknown, the clinicians were forced to make an early commitment on Sam. "He looked into our eyes and pleaded for a chance," says Givotovsky. "He's the type of dog you just can't turn away."

Here's where the dedicated 50-member Vashon Island Pet Protectors, a nonprofit rescue and fund-raising organization for low-cost sterilization, entered the picture. One of its members contacted the humane society in Kodiak, inquiring about lost Alaskan malamutes.

Because White left a phone-number contact and a detailed profile of the dog with a Kodiak veterinary clinic and the humane-society shelter, the eventual reunion became a reality.

During a phone conversation with a VIPP volunteer, White asked that someone call the dog Attu and observe its response.

"Then I told 'em he had brown eyes, a couple of scars on his head and another behind his right ear. It wasn't long before they said, `It looks like it's your dog.' I told them I'd be in Seattle within a few days and to do whatever was necessary to treat him."

White arrived in Seattle Oct. 19, nine days after the injured Attu was brought into the clinic, and made regular visits there until the dog's release Dec. 26.

Veterinary bills totaled approximately $5,000, but the young couple's huge bill was pared considerably, thanks to VIPP's Attu Fund (jars were placed about town and additional donations were received by mail) which raised approximately $2,000.

White adds, "Attu and I owe so many people for their dedication, goodwill and generosity. I never lost hope we'd find him, but I recognized it was a real longshot.

"This is Christmas and birthday (her birthday is Dec. 24) present I'll cherish for a lifetime."

-- Mail information regarding dog/cat events to Classified Division, attn. Marilyn Fairbanks, Dog/Cat Events, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA. 9811. All releases must be in writing and received by Monday prior to Sunday publication. Be sure to include a public phone-contact number. Also don't forget to phone in for my pet tip of the week on The Seattle Times Infoline, 464-2000, then press PETS (7387).