UPDATE 3/23/03 on the Montana Collies

Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt

*Permission to crosspost*

Volunteers: The animals are at the 4-H barn, Camp Collie, in Shelby until May 1. If you are planning to fly or drive to Montana to volunteer, we do not know at this time where they will be located after that date, but we will keep you informed as we receive more information.

Jean Be Back – Part IV
By Jean Levitt

Shelby, Montana, is a farm and ranching community built around railroad tracks, much like the town in which I was born and raised in Illinois. I was comfortable in Shelby the moment I arrived. The residents of Shelby and surrounding communities are good people with strong values. They work hard with pride and determination. They saved the collies and other animals. While there in December and then again in January, I met hundreds of citizens of Montana and southern Canada who care deeply about the animals and who continue to give of themselves to preserve them.

As I moved about town, people knowingly smiled and said hello. Folks in small communities recognize strangers among them. I lived in an apartment building in New York City with a little over 3000 residents. I always recognized new people in the lobby. Shelby has the same amount of people as my apartment building.

At Patty’s Place, the restaurant on Main Street in which we had lunch each trial day because of its close proximity to the courthouse, the wait staff quickly learned I always had tea and Kay Bullard enjoyed extra gravy with her biscuits. They began bringing those items to our table as soon as they saw us coming in the door. They served “good ole down home cookin’,” as my father used to say: meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, pork chops, homemade pie to die for (my favorite was chocolate creme). Thea Sperline was with us the first few days of the trial. She used her last remaining days off from work to come to Shelby to help me attend the trial, because I couldn’t risk the health of Sir Austin, my service dog, by bringing him around the parasite-infested, quarantined dogs at Camp Collie. When the trial lasted into the second week, Thea had to return to Helena, but she came back the following weekend with several volunteers from her kennel club.

In a small community way, Patty’s Place defined the trial. Our little group represented: AWCA – me; the professional groomers – Kay; and the community volunteers – Thea. We always chose the table against the far wall of the large undecorated room, filled with row after row of plain tables. From our little space cluttered with ketchup bottles, cutlery, and plates filled with good food, we could observe everyone passing through Patty’s front door: the judge, who usually joined a small table of people near the far center of the room; the defense attorney and his entourage, including that day’s witness, the musher, the webcam technician, and a woman who assisted him with paperwork in the courtroom. They sat on our wall a few tables beyond us. The Toole County Sheriff’s Office personnel sat at a long table in the middle of the room, looking very smart and official in their tan law-enforcement uniforms. The prosecuting attorney and his associate sat up front by the long curtained windows paralleling the sidewalk. Various reporters, photographers, and TV camera person sat along the far wall. In this manner we were distributed about Patty’s Place at lunchtime on trial days. At each table, we conversed only among ourselves. Dotted among us were tables of townsfolk, ranchers and farmers, local merchants and business people, and persons just passing through town. We were all tied together by the common thread of the trial and the wait staff who hurried among us serving lunch. This was in sharp contrast to the days before and after the trial when the customers chatted in a friendly, informal manner over enormous plates of good food and steaming bowls of homemade soup.

The judge, after jury selection, warned the jury and members of the courtroom to ignore each other to preserve the integrity of the court. Thus warned, everyone was careful to obey. This was a small town taking great pains to behave responsibly in the face of a serious criminal animal case. I felt proud to be among such people.

To be continued...

Calmly,
Jean Levitt, President AWCA
Lisa King, AWCA Director AWCA Rescue
Officers and Members of AWCA

If you would like to assist AWCA with this rescue effort, you may send a check to:

Bethany Burk
AWCA Treasurer
2807 Lee Trevino Court
Shalimar, FL 32579

Make the check out to AWCA and in the memo area note: collie rescue-medical, collie rescue-stainless steel, or collie rescue-general.