After two grueling weeks, Island-raised Laura Macomber helped to deliver a nervous stray dog from the streets of Dominica through a multi-country journey to the couch cushions of her mother’s home in Edgartown
The dog, a female “potcake” mix, roughly one year in age and named Birdie, had spent her short life so far scavenging near the Caribbean country’s cruise terminals. Now, she lives a peaceful life with Lynn Macomber, Laura’s mother who has long dreamed of adopting a Caribbean potcake.
Laura first encountered Birdie months ago during a cruise stop near the Roseau Botanical Gardens in Dominica. She said the connection was immediate. When she returned at the end of March this year to rescue Birdie, Laura said they remembered each other.
“When I whistled at her, she just came running over,” Laura said of their second encounter. “She remembered and recognized me.”
Laura took possession of Birdie, an untrained street dog who’d never worn a collar, on March 30. Laura recalled how, when she first put the collar on, Birdie thrashed around violently in fear before eventually calming down. While paperwork was being processed for Birdie’s safe return, Laura spent two weeks in Dominica acclimating Birdie to collars, leashes, and indoor life.
“She was just really, really dirty, and really scared,” Laura said. “I had to acclimate her … It took a few days of patience for her to realize, ‘Oh, you’re my person. I’m okay now.’”
Laura, a 1999 MVRHS graduate who has 10 years of experience as a veterinary technician, described a lengthy process to get Birdie to the Vineyard. She coordinated the rescue process with St. Nicholas Animal Rescue at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in Dominica, and the group helped secure vaccines, deworming medicine, and a “mountain” of CDC, agricultural, and international paperwork required to move Birdie from Dominica through Trinidad and Tobago into the United States.
“The hardest part was waiting,” she said. “The pace in the Caribbean is really slow.”
Birdie flew as checked baggage on Caribbean Airlines from Dominica to Trinidad then flew overnight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. Macomber waited anxiously through layovers and inspections before the emotional reunion in New York.
“She just started wagging her tail like crazy,” Laura said. “She instantly knew, ‘It’s you. Thank God you’re here.’”
Birdie, only the second large dog successfully flown off the island of Dominica by the rescue group, has adapted quickly to her new life, said Laura. Birdie is now a “dedicated couch potato and lap dog.”
Laura said leaving Birdie with her mother, Lynn, on April 18, when Birdie’s new life officially began, was the hardest part.
“You don’t go through an adventure like that … and not have an attachment,” she said with a tear in her eye.
Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in veterinary technology from Middlesex Community College and has advanced degrees in other fields. She now works in human medicine but has fostered and helped numerous animals over the years. This rescue, she said, was unlike any other she’s done before.
“I’ve never done anything like this. This is the first,” she said.
Laura said she hopes the rescue operation will shine a light on St. Nicholas Animal Rescue, and the hundreds of dogs still in need on the resource-strapped nation of Dominica.
“I just think it’s really important that people that have the availability to go help these dogs in need, do,” said Laura. “If anybody has the time or the want to help St. Nicholas Animal Rescue, they should.”
The rescue group is planning a larger “freedom flight,” a dedicated charter carrying a large quantity of rescue dogs to homes in the U.S. and Canada, in early July.