Denise Crosby: Dog-gone sick stray proving elusive for two communities

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Gail Williams recently got out of a long and violent domestic abuse situation with her children and found refuge at the Community Crisis Center in Elgin (background). The center has helped her transition herself back into living her life by getting a job, an apartment and enough money. She officially began the process of filing for divorce and she is going with her daughter to court in a domestic violence situation her own child is undergoing. Without getting strong herself, Gail says she would never have been able to help her own children get out of bad situations. She's a pillar of strength for others at the center, as well. This month is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. October 25, 2011 | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: November 27, 2011 12:55PM

If the poor stray has a name, no one has shared it.

And so, the light brown mutt is known far and wife simply as “The Dog With the Tumor.”

But despite the gargantuan growth hanging from its underside, the animal — lab-like in height and weight but with a boxer-like face — is adept at avoiding capture. Both Naperville and Aurora animal controls have been trying to do so for close to four months. The tumor, about the size of a Nerf football, doesn’t seem to slow the dog down. Aurora officer Quentin Johnson says at one point the stray was cornered by a trio of his employees in a fenced-in area, and jumped over the four-foot barrier to escape.

And dog-gone it, he can run!

Probably 30 miles per hour, said Johnson, which is remarkable considering that tumor.

Needless to say, everyone is anxious to catch the animal, estimated to be 7 or 8 years old. “It is surviving,” said Johnson. “On what, I don’t know.” And now that the weather is getting colder, the urgency increases.

Naperville resident Trish Loughlin spotted the stray recently while out walking her own dog in the White Eagle area. The animal ran away after she tried calling to it, so she took her pet home and searched for the mutt. Loughlin found it a couple of blocks later “but it ducked inside some yards and crossed the street, obviously wanting to avoid people.”

By now, the dog is so familiar with the area that it knows just which yards to go into to avoid capture, added Naperville Animal Control Supervisor Joanne Aul. And it definitely has animal control’s number: One look at their vehicles and uniforms, says both Johnson and Aul, and it’s out of there like a streak of lightning.

There’s been a string of sightings since July: around I-88, Eola Road, the Ogden Avenue post office, Naperville North High School, the historic district, White Eagle and Eagle Pointe subdivisions, to name a few.

The dog has even been spotted closer to Warrenville, putting its travel radius at about eight miles. It obviously “doesn’t like to stay in one place very long,” noted Aul.

With limited tools — neither Aurora nor Naperville possess large nets or the more costly net guns — both offices are attempting to get within 10 feet of their prey. (Aurora uses catch poles or long leashes, while Naperville has cage traps.) Aurora does possess a dart gun, but officials won’t use it in this case because they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the dog once it was shot. The stray could run off, said Johnson, and finally succumb to the drug where no one would find it — making it vulnerable to wild animals.

It’s obvious a whole lot of folks want to save The Dog with the Tumor and are frustrated by his/her elusiveness. “We just want to get it out of the open and into a shelter so we can take care of its medical needs,” said Johnson.

Its would-be captors/saviors speculate the dog may have been turned loose by its owner, prompting advice from Johnson: If you can’t afford medical attention for your pet, bring it to the shelter for treatment. “They may be descended from wolves, but they are domestic animals,” he stressed. “Do not put them out in the wild.”

Aul says the hope is, with the public’s help, the stray makes a wrong turn and goes into someone’s garage.

“Try to herd it into some place,” she suggested, “and maybe we can get it caught.”