Two-week ordeal ends with dog's return
by Kelly Feser Eells

Two-year-old Brandee had been living in Ojai just over two weeks when her adoptive mother, BeBe Fehlhaber, reported her missing. The heartbroken Fehlhaber described Brandee, whom she had "fallen in love with at first sight," as a cross between a white Labrador and a beagle - "what the vet called a 'Harrier.'"
Fehlhaber, who moved from Orange County to Ojai last April, adopted Brandee from the Camarillo Humane Society shelter on Jan. 15.
Within 10 days, the dog that was "real shy with people" had already gotten used to Fehlhaber, "and was always hanging around me," at her mistress' side. She was at Fehlhaber's side on Jan. 25, as the Daly Road resident was preparing for their daily walk along Shelf Road. "I'd just boiled water, for some instant coffee I was going to bring along, in the microwave. For five minutes," said Fehlhaber, indicating that five minutes was "much too much" time. As she was getting ready to put Brandee's leash on, the dog excitedly knocked the cup of coffee from her hand, the scalding liquid splashing over both her feet. It was, she recalls, excruciating. "The tears were coming as the blisters formed. Brandee was so upset that I was upset."
Fehlhaber's second and third degree burns required hospitalization and daily visits from a home health nurse. "I couldn't walk anymore, but Brandee was so sweet. She always just sat here, by my side."
Fehlhaber, however, "felt bad for Brandee," deprived of any outdoor exercise, and, on Feb. 1, she called on friends of hers for a favor.
"My friends, they have three dogs, so I asked them if they'd mind taking Brandee for a good run." She notes that, while her friends are in their 70s, they "very kindly" agreed - although Brandee was reluctant to go.
"Then, after about an hour, they came back with a horrible look on their faces," Fehlhaber continued. Brandee had run off, disappearing in the orchards lining Shelf Road. "I felt so bad for them because they felt so terrible. Here I'd gone and asked them this big favor and, well."
She immediately placed pictures with both the Camarillo and Ojai Humane Societies, and relied on friends to conduct the search. "Every day, someone went to look for Brandee. People saw her, but she wouldn't come. She was so afraid, and those orchards are like a maze."
The ordeal was doubly frustrating for Fehlhaber, whose injuries kept her from looking for Brandee herself. "One man (with property adjacent to Shelf Road), he was lovely. He opened a can of food for her, but she ran off." Though she "really wasn't supposed to," Fehlhaber began driving up and down the streets of her neighborhood, calling for Brandee. "I was thinking, 'all of these streets must look the same to her,'" she said. "My heart was just hanging."
Fehlhaber visited with her granddaughter, Julia, on Feb. 5. "She loved Brandee. So I said, 'Let's do something special, Julia, and pray for Brandee. 'Okay, Oami' - that's German for Grandma - she said, 'Dear God, please bring Brandee back safe.'"
Late that night, "It was 2 in the morning, actually. I heard this crying outside, around the house." Fehlhaber, marveling at the memory, pauses before adding, "I opened the front door, and there she was. She was beautiful. She hugged me like a human being. I spent three hours on the couch with her."
Fehlhaber started walking again on Feb. 10. On a recent walk with Brandee, who "won't leave my side," she tripped over the devoted dog and "fell right on my tummy. But I wasn't even upset. She is my lovebug."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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