When it comes to collaboration, networking and a can-do attitude the state of North Carolina deserves to be on the top end of any “best at” lists. Perhaps that is why so many people wishing to relocate have been choosing the Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte areas for the past couple of decades. This has helped land them regularly in the top five or better “Best Places For__” fill in the blank. In this piece we’ll take a wider look around the state at some of the lesser known, yet highly attractive places for those seeking quality of life, sense of place, support systems for small and large businesses, and workers trying to find positions where they know they will be valued and appreciated. North Carolina is full of attractive features that can lure businesses and individuals to its various regions and then help ensure their success. Let’s take a look.

In the economic development world Industry sectors and workforce size are usually the first cards laid on the table when trying to entice. To further the poker metaphor, NC has a full house.

Many states can say they have a strong labor force and broad diversity of industry. Few can say they are the top location for any particular sector, but rarer still is to hold the top position in more than one category. North Carolina is not only ranked as having the largest manufacturing workforce in the Southeast, it also holds claim to several top spots in industry rankings.

Even with historical roots in agriculture, and that still being their largest industry sector, the state has a wide range of business and holds the following national titles: Number one in both Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Largest Furniture Manufacturing, Second Most Popular Tech Hub and Second Largest for Food and Beverage Processing. The list continues into various levels of top spots for automotive, aerospace, logistics, agriculture and textiles.

So why is there so much success? Perhaps it is the bent towards teamwork. Historically, North Carolina has been a place where collaboration in economic development on all levels has been valued and enacted for quite some time. There have been periods when they wobbled away from that, like during the previous governor’s term, but overall they have done an excellent job at maintaining cohesion and a sense of teamwork from the state level down to the small town chambers. The spirit of working together instead of competing against, is alive and well across the state.

State programs like NC Works, One North Carolina Fund, Job Development Investment Grant (JDIC) and building reuse grants are put to good use here, revitalizing old mills, repurposing various business campuses and finding good matches between workers and industry. There are also a wide variety of regional programs with various groups: The Golden Leaf Foundation, NC Carolina Core, Piedmont Triangle Partnership, NC Electricies and a host of others, along with local township, county and city help that ensure companies and people have what they need to succeed.

If you are looking for a sense of community and a place to belong, North Carolina is chock full of areas offering it, each with its unique twist.

Fayetteville/ Cumberland County is one such place. With over 57,000 military personnel from Fort Bragg and as home to the first responder units who are deployed in all sorts of emergencies, both domestically and abroad, it is no surprise that there is a strong sense of service to others. The area, branded “Can Do Carolina”, after two years of extensive market research aimed at finding the strengths and common threads of their community, found these four pillars that describe their community: “We find a way, we care for one another, we protect the world and we always go further.”

This team-oriented mindset is pervasive not only in the military residents but throughout their diverse population. Their diversity may be surprising to some. Robert Van Goens, president and CEO of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation, summed it up well by saying, “there are 82 languages from 86 countries spoken in our schools.”

Contributing to this international variety in their population, is that they are a Host Community of the Global Special Operations Forces Communities of Excellence (GSOF) in which they foster global collaboration and cooperation between international cities. These partnerships, along with their thriving downtown, the plan to build 100% fiber optic network, thoughtful assistance programs and their inordinately helpful residents have helped to increase economic and cultural growth. Just this April Forbes wrote a piece in which they called Fayetteville, “a city on the rise” and “one of the most accessible American cities.” You can see the results of their rise to popularity reflected in some of the businesses that have chosen to locate, expand and invest there recently including Amazon, Cargill, Metronet and Dansons to name just a few.

Another area that understands the power of partnership is Guilford County. Six years ago a group of civic leaders realized the benefits of collaboration between the two cities of High Point and Greensboro. Each maintains autonomy with their separate economic development agencies, High Point Economic Development Corporation and Greensboro Chamber of Commerce but, as of 2015, there is also the Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA). The two Cities managers and mayors along with the County manager and Board of Commissioners Chair meet regularly to assure the alliance carries out its mission to facilitate exponential growth for both cities and the surrounding area. Their work is paying off. Since its inception there have been 107 announcements: 17 new companies, 10,581 new jobs and over $1.3B overall investment.

High Point and Greensboro, like other cities and towns in North Carolina, have taken advantage of the state’s building reuse grants and other funds to create renaissance waves in their respective downtowns.

High Point is nicknamed “North Carolina’s International City TM” because of their fame as the state’s biggest economic event which draws thousands of internationals. It is a twice-yearly trade show that generates an estimated $6.73 B and is the world’s largest for home furnishings.

The changes to downtown have no doubt made visitors as well as High Point’s current residents happy, many of which are higher education students in the regions 16 colleges and universities. Over $200 million has gone into rejuvenating their downtown with some interesting new projects. Congdon Yards, has transformed an old hosiery mill into a new gathering hub that provides “a new destination to work, gather, innovate and celebrate.” Barbour Spangle Design and Culp, long time High Point companies are making their business homes at Congdon Yards. Overall, the past six years have brought in a variety of new restaurants, shops and office space. Sandy Dunbeck, Director of High Point Economic Development Corporation states “Key Risk, a Fortune 500 Berkley company has just announced the intention to move their headquarters operation to downtown High Point. They will be in 275 N Elm Street, a brand new office building in the Outfields of High Point’s Multipurpose Stadium”. To accommodate this growth on the housing side, the area is on track to build hundreds of new homes, which will sell in the mid $200s, a range considered one of the most affordable for U.S. mid-sized metros. Developers are also planning apartment and condo units in the downtown.

High Point University also plays an important role in the region’s success, not only by producing well-educated, well-rounded adults but also as a leader of community involvement. Students, faculty and staff average 108,000 hours of volunteer service annually. The university hosts more than 150 sports and cultural events.

The University’s Idea Incubator (Think Tank), which is focused on ensuring the city continues to thrive, is one of the many examples of the robust network of support for existing businesses and entrepreneurs to find success and then use it to help the community. Other available support programs include CEOs for Cities, High Point Young Professionals Group and Leadership High Point.

Nearby Greensboro has found similar success and made profound changes to their downtown with investments in their streetscapes, parks, baseball stadium and renovations of many of their buildings — including the opening of both a new vegan restaurant and a wine bar. But Marvin Price, of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, thinks the “crown jewel and the game-changer that will be the catalyst to drive continued growth” is the construction of what may become one of the state’s most attractive performing arts centers. Located intentionally near the adjacent parks, one of which is LeBauer Park, which Mr. Price says is, “a great melting pot in the community, where people walk their dogs, attend different festivals including food truck festivals.”

The Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts is in its final days of construction and slated to open September 2021. Price said, “any Broadway play that you would be able to see in New York you’re going to be able to see in Greensboro, North Carolina.” He thinks this has helped spur companies already located in Greensboro “to double down on their investment in the community.” Price used Syngenta, a Fortune 500 company with decades old roots in Greensboro, as an example. Needing to expand and build a new headquarters they conducted a site search. Price said, “they could have really moved anywhere in the world.” But they chose to invest $68M in their current campus and in doing so retained 750 jobs whose average wage is over $100,000. Price believes this is a “tell-tale sign for people looking at North Carolina, that we are on the precipice of something truly transformational.”

A key element in the success of this dynamic duo of cities, as well as the businesses located within and around them, is the logistics side of the picture. The area was noted as “punching above its weight” by logistics website Ajot.com. They went on to say, “Greensboro-High Point has developed an excess of modern transportation and logistics capacity, especially considering the decrepitude of much of the infrastructure in the United States. From an over-abundance of interstate highways to the proactive improvement of one-thousand acres at Piedmont Triad International Airport , the region is in the same class as logistics hubs like Indianapolis, Columbus, and Louisville.”

North Carolina has 81,104 miles of state controlled roadways that were ranked 14th in the nation for overall State Highway Performance by Reason Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy research group. $672B, yes that’s “b” for billion, worth of goods are trucked to and from sites in North Carolina, that’s 81% of its overall goods. According to a report from the NC Chamber Foundation published last year, “locations within a mile of NC highway improvements experienced a 35 percent increase in employment.” This forward-looking report goes on to say that additional funding is needed for North Carolina to keep its roads on par with the explosive growth throughout the state.

Rockingham County, located north of Greensboro near the border of Virginia, with a 232 percent economic growth from 2018 to 2019, is a good example of this explosion. Perhaps their most dynamic offering for business success may be the team running The Rockingham County Center for Economic Development, Small Business and Tourism . Led by Leigh Cockram, 2021 winner of the NCEDA Economic Developer of the Year Award, this small but mighty team provides some very hands-on help. Along with the usual support found from economic development organizations, Leigh and her associates are particularly adept at utilizing the resources available to business for development. Many programs have cumbersome demands asked of those who attain funds for development and expansion.These can be overwhelming and fraught with unknowns that can hamper success.

“I don’t like surprises, good or bad, and we try to make sure our companies don’t have surprises. I think it’s one of the major reasons why we won Pella [Windows],” said Cockram. No doubt she’s right. It’s also likely that the new workforce development training facility, currently in construction in Rockingham, contributed to landing the window-maker and a handful of others in the last two years. Nestle Purina, Ontex Group, Farmina, and Sturm, Ruger & Company have all made announcements in Rockingham County. All told, 892 new jobs are heading to the area in the coming years.

Another special perspective widely held among leaders and residents of the Rockingham area is an acute awareness of the importance of clean water and good stewardship of the environment. Unfortunately, for many this was gained as a result of a 2014 disaster. A drainage pipe burst at a coal ash containment pond owned by Duke Energy in Eden, North Carolina, sending 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River. The spill had horrendous effects on the river, poisoning and killing its inhabitants. Dead fish and crayfish could be seen floating in the ash-laden water. Luckily for the town the drinking supply was unaffected because it came from above where the spill happened.

What was affected though was the economy in the area. In the months immediately following the spill, river related businesses, restaurants, motels and others around Eden, took a huge economic hit, as people concerned about contact with coal ash-contaminated water shied away.

Duke has since spent millions to mitigate the problem and there are many watchful eyes on the Dan to ensure its good health. Good Stewards of Rockingham, a local grassroots group and member of the national Water Keeper Alliance, formed in June of 2014. The spill prompted new EPA oversight and rules concerning coal ash and ash pits. It also sparked a better understanding of the role water and the natural environment play in economies. During our discussion on what makes Rockingham County unique for ensuring business success, Leigh Cockram mentioned their strong awareness that a clean environment plays an important part in ensuring the health of residents, communities and economies. To that end Rockingham has invested heavily in clean energy $104M total, with $99.6M of that going towards solar photovoltaic.

Rockingham represents a state norm on clean energy. According to a new report conducted by RTI International, North Carolina has invested $40.3 billion in renewables over the last 14 years. That investment has helped keep it in national top spots of clean energy rankings, but more importantly it has supported jobs. As of 2019 nearly 113,000 North Carolinians worked in solar, wind, energy efficiency, grid modernization, energy storage, clean vehicles and other clean energy occupations. Duke Energy and Dominion Electric are the largest companies providing clean electrical energy, but they are not alone.

NC Electric Cooperatives also provide power through 26 different non-profits in 93 counties. They can be an attractive alternative for businesses and residents to get their electricity as member-owner. Like their larger counterparts these coops play active roles in their communities in a variety of ways and offer corporate assistance including zero interest loans.

Another interesting entity involved with utilities and economic development is Eletricities of North Carolina an organization that acts as an umbrella system for municipalities that own their own electric distribution systems. Of the 10.5 million people in NC 1.3M get their power from municipally or locally owned utilities. Electricies NC works on their behalf as a buyers club providing collective strength for wholesale purchasing, as well as for other things including emergency recovery assistance, legislative & regulatory affairs and a wide range of economic development services.

Two of the many strong suits of this network are the ability to offer negotiated rates to their industry customers and a far higher reliability rate than other electric power suppliers. According to Drew Elliot, Manager, Government Affairs of Eletricities of NC, “we beat the pants off of the others when it comes to reliability and outage restoration. Our customers enjoy on average one outage per year and power is on 99.98% of the time.”

Throughout the state, utility providers can be powerful partners to new or expanding businesses. The turnaround of Whitaker Park located in Winston-Salem is a good example of another team effort in North Carolina that’s helping businesses realize success.

The former center for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co’s manufacturing operations consists of 13 buildings on 120 acres. The campus, built in 1961, was shut down and abandoned in mid-2012. Then in 2017 the property formally changed hands and the Whitaker Park Development Authority Inc., a nonprofit corporation created in 2011, became the new owner. Duke Energy made the first large investment to change the electrical infrastructure so that the property could be used by multiple tenants instead of the one original.

The goal was to remake the campus and offer new tenants a range of uses from light manufacturing and R&D, to residential and retail. With Bob Leak, an experienced Winston-Salem economic developer of 33 years, acting as CEO, Whitaker Park has become a booming success. At the time of writing this article, the park has either sold or has sale pending on all but one building and one land parcel. As a matter of fact just a few days ago, a new project was announced for Nature’s Value, a global vitamin and supplement manufacturer. They plan to build state-of-the-art facilities investing $19 million and creating 183 new jobs.

The plans will be facilitated, in part, with a state Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) which will potentially reimburse the company as much as $1,954,800 spread over 12 years. Additionally because the company is locating in Forsyth County, classified by the state’s economic tier system as a Tier 2, the JDIG agreement calls for as much as $217,200 into the state’s Industrial Development Fund — Utility Account. This account helps rural communities finance infrastructure upgrades to attract new business.

Nature’s Value will have some great neighbors — already announced or located there are: Cook Medical, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, Forsyth County Education and developer Chris Harrison, who plans to renovate two historic plants into 164 residential units and build 25,000-square-feet of new retail space along with a 125-room hotel.

Whitaker Park is not the only substantial piece of real estate in the Winston-Salem area being repurposed. Another R.J. Reynolds holding, the former tobacco campus now called Innovation Quarter, has become a tony hub for food, music, retail and cultural gatherings. This 1.6 acre mixed use development is home to 90 businesses, 5 academic institutions and over 1,000 apartments. You can meander along the pathways built over old railroad tracks, find a table in the welcoming lower courtyard, get a brick-oven slice, a house brewed beer and then sit back to enjoy the company of the community and live music. This pleasant surprise, to those unfamiliar, will undoubtedly endear you to this interesting and innovative city. There is a quote found on the Innovation Quarter’s website, “Innovation Quarter is a place where diverse people, a unique mixed-use environment and a welcoming community spark the creativity and collaboration that drive innovation and growth.”

This sentiment could be used to sum up the business climate of the state. If you are looking to make something, achieve success in business or simply make a good life in a welcoming, diverse community, this state offers it all. There are plenty of ways to find support for creativity and collaboration here and to become part of what drives both innovation and growth for North Carolina and beyond.

As regards personality, intelligence or the concept of a “good match” for us I don’t think I could have asked for better than this guy. He learned to heel in less than the time it took to walk past two houses and merely by me telling him that he could not pull me so hard or he would hurt me. I told him “slow” and he slowed. I told him, “stay with me” and he walked by my hip. We went from him wrenching my arm to the point of concern, to me dangling the leash from my wrist, his front legs instep with mine, in just few minutes.

Perhaps he was simply showing gratitude or respect for being saved from danger. Perhaps he was grateful that someone could see and trust, the smart gentle soul that he is. Honestly it pains me to ponder too much on what he might have been like before us or how he may have been treated. Given the small glimpse of what I saw into his “ownership” I cannot imagine very much happiness, trust or fun. Merely writing this has created tears in my eyes. I’ll tell you plainly about that glimpse. It’s the reason he is still living with us and has now become part of our family.

I stumbled naively into that glimpse as a do-gooder, with absolutely no expectations of anything but to return a lost, endangered pup home safely. Little did I know I was moving toward witnessing some of the most disgusting human behavior I have ever seen. And given that I was once fairly steeped in the world of addicts and drugs, that is saying something.

Here is how it happened: I was driving home from a meeting with a client/friend. My phone was tucked into my shirt’s shoulder because my bluetooth wasn’t working. I was talking to Sheryl, touching base because my meeting ran over and I knew she’d be wondering where I was. I was not long into sharing my afternoon when I said, “oh shit, there’s a dog in the road, I need to hang up there’s lots of traffic.” At the same time, I hung up and steered my car into the grass on the side of the road. The dog, who had been frantically running around the middle line, came straight to the car. I reached across and pulled the handle of the passenger door. The dog nosed the cracked door open, jumped in and plopped himself, panting, across the passenger seat, and middle console to lay his head on my lap.

I think we were both relieved that he was off the hot street and out of the danger of the cars streaming by in both directions at 50 mph. I started speaking and petting him immediately. I told him he was okay, and that I was going to help him. I began to look at him and recognized him as a dog I had seen a couple of times in a neighborhood close to ours. It was a place I walked when our subdivision seemed too small, too short of a walk. This place was down and across the street. It added 3/4 to a mile to my walk. There was a break in the traffic and we had both calmed sufficiently, so I eased my car off the grass and headed to Pleasant Ct.

My plan was to look for anyone outside in the area, ask if they knew this dog and if so which house he belonged in. After I drove about half way down, a car turned onto the street behind me. I stopped, got out and flagged it down. I asked the driver if she recognized the dog. She said she didn’t. I got back in and kept driving up and around the curve. There was a small, very wrinkled, but straight-backed old woman out in a front yard. I pulled up next to her. I asked her the same question. She looked in at the large, mostly white dog, with brown spots, eyes ringed in black then brown. She said, “yep I knows that dog. I know just where he stay.” She said he belonged to a woman named Perry who lived way down the adjacent gravel road. Her’s was the last house on Easy Street, far past the last gate.

I explained I had found this guy on the busy road outside their neighborhood running in the traffic. She replied, “yeah, I don’t know what she’s gonna do about that dog. She seemed to have him good for a while but he keeps breaking out.” I told her I thought I had seen him before running with some other dogs around the area. She said, “yeah, that’s probably him. He won’ stay put. She’s gone too long and he go get himself to trouble.”

I told her I would take the dog down the gravel road to his property but she replied, “she ain’t home now, won’t be for some time. Probably seven, eight o’clock.” I showed concern at the fact it would be some time before the woman would get home, and began pondering out loud what I might do next, including take the dog home with me and bring him back later. It wasn’t my first choice though. This all seemed a bit much given we have no fencing in our yard and we have three cats, who I was sure would be completely freaked out by this large and stinky dog. Plus, I had noticed his tiny white fur was already all over the black cloth seats of my car. I imagined that problem magnified inside our house. As I was resigning myself to the fact that this un-thought-out act of kindness was taking a turn into efforts pressing against my boundaries, the old woman spoke again.

She said the woman’s son lived just up the road from where we were talking, and that he should be home soon. She said I could probably leave the dog with him. She told me he had borrowed another neighbor’s white truck to run to the dump and that he should be back shortly. She said I might even be able to just leave the dog in his yard if, “he won’t home yet.” I clarified with her which house was his and told her I was going to see about leaving the dog there, in the yard. We said goodbyes and I drove back down the road the way I’d come in. As she had told me, down several properties after a patch of wooded area there was a trailer placed on a newly cleared lot. The yard had little grass and was mostly rocky, hard-packed red clay. The trailer was set back away from the road but clearly visible. Two older mid-sized sedans were parked to the front right of the mobile home. I pulled up the uneven drive and parked behind the cars, got out, walked to the front door and knocked, just in case. As expected, no-one answered.

I then walked to my car’s passenger door, opened it and told the dog, “come on you, you can stay here.” He didn’t budge. I tried again, “hey buddy, here you go…time to get out…here you are… you can get out here and hang out…one of your people is coming home soon.” He went from sitting to laying down in my car. Resigned, I got back in and told him, “I guess your coming home with me for a while.”

I backed down the rough drive onto the pavement and had just started moving forward when I saw a white truck coming out of the blind curve ahead. I braked and let the truck move to me so that our open windows were in line. Before I could say anything the man driving the truck looked past me at the big dog partially in my lap and said in a gruff and bullying tone, “that’s mine.” I pushed down my outrage and replied simply, “yup, I know.” Before I could say anything else he was out of the truck and around to the passenger door of my car. He opened it and commanded the dog to “get out!” The dog, already leaning on me, leaned harder and rolled his eyes towards mine. I kept my eyes averted from both the dog’s and the man’s. He said, “I -said get out!” The dog didn’t move. Within seconds the man’s big dark hands were grabbing the white-furred skin of the dog’s back, two-fistfuls. Then he yanked the dog up and out of the car. He tossed him hard onto the road.

Stunned, I watched aghast as the dog hit the asphalt and crumpled flat onto the ground, first letting out a yelp and a then groan. Quickly he scrambled to his feet. The man tried to grab him again, but was outmaneuvered by the dog. I pulled the door closed and began slowly driving away, eyes locked on the rear-view mirror to witness the scene behind me. The dog ran serpentine as the man moved to grab him. Thankfully he had no collar, which, now that he was moving, made him much harder snatch. The man yelled, the dog circled, too fast to be caught. I kept my hands tight on the wheel, eyes darting from windshield to mirrors, foot steady on the gas to maintain 15 then 20 mph.

As much as I hated what was happening I knew my outrage would most likely become fuel for this man’s fiery rage. I was cognizant that better safe than sorry was applicable here. And perhaps in this situation the word “sorry” might be interchangeable with the word “injured” or “dead.”

I drove down that road with a sick feeling in my stomach and a despair in my heart. Then after several times of I looking from ahead, to behind me, I saw the dog take his eyes from the threatening man to look up and out for my car. I saw him glance back at the man and out again to the car, then I watched as he began to run after my car.

My heart lightened a little. My foot stayed steady on the gas. The dog ran faster. The car kept rolling. My eyes darted from the windshield to the mirrors. I realized I could no longer see the white truck, nor the man. Then I realized, if I couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see me.

I checked that logic, thinking it over again. Yes, surely the curve in the road was making it impossible to see my car. After a few more seconds I eased my foot from the pedal until I slowed to 10mph, all the while keeping a watch in the rear-view mirrors. The dog, running as fast as he could, began to catch up. I still did not see the truck. Within several more seconds the dog was even with the car’s front door. I slowed to stop and again reached across to unlatch the passenger door. The dog nosed it open like the first time and jumped in. I hit the gas. I drove quickly out of the neighborhood, passed one car, barely stopped at the stop sign, turned right, and sped down the street and away.

Filled with great fear that the white truck was somehow going to follow me, I sped from street to street away from our area. After some time, I’m not at all sure how much, I headed back towards my house. Just when I was about to turn in to the entrance of our neighborhood, I saw the white truck coming from the opposite direction.

I didn’t turn, I kept going straight. We passed each other. I sped down the road and quickly turned into a gravel drive. It was hidden on both sides with vegetation and I intended to drive down it far enough to be out of view from the road. But as I rolled along the gravel I realized the name on the private road sign I’d just passed said “Perry” just like the name the old woman had told me “owned” the dog. Panicking, I sped backwards on the gravel to get out of the driveway before someone heard or saw me. When my wheels reached the main road and I was carefully backing on to it, I saw up in the distance, across the street, at the church parking lot there, the white truck was turning around to come back my way. I screeched backwards onto the pavement and then forward towards our neighborhood entrance. This time I turned in speeding way too fast past the other houses heading to ours. All the while afraid of the coming confrontation.

Once in our driveway I backed my car between a tree and the front hedges to hide it from street view. I jumped out of the car, raced into the house and exclaimed to Sheryl, “we have a situation!” She said, “you have the dog in your car, don’t you?” I said, “yes, but it’s worse than that. I said, “I’ll explain, but right now we need to get the dog out of the car and hide him, I’m afraid someone may have followed me to get him.”

She told me to go in the house and change my look. She said she would get the dog from the car. I ran in and immediately took off my glasses and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. I shed the blazer and my shirt heading to the laundry room where I found a t-shirt. Sheryl was not in the house with the dog yet. I headed for the front door to see what was happening outside. I couldn’t see her, the dog or the car. I grabbed a straw hat from the hall closet and ran out towards the car, checking out to the street to see if the white truck had come.

Sheryl was around on the passenger side between the car and the high hedges. She said, “I can’t get him to come out. He’s too afraid.” I said, “I’ll run next door to see if I can borrow a leash from Diane, she’s home.” She said, “okay, I’ll keep trying.” I said, “keep an eye out for the guy in a white truck, he’s bad news.” And then I dashed off.

Sprinting to our neighbor Diane’s house, I realized I was hoping to get back-up as much as a leash. She has two sizable dogs, and an imposingly large husband, who often worked from home. I skipped up their side porch steps and banged on the kitchen door. She came almost immediately. Out of breath, from sprinting, I told her in short sentences what had happened. God love her, she asked without hesitation, “what do you need?” At first I said, “I don’t know.” I was second guessing what I had done. I really did not want to bring a shit storm down on our peaceful life. And that guy was scary.

I told her how he had pulled the dog out of the car and flung him to the ground purposefully inflicting maximum pain. I told her how the dog had leaned harder into me when the guy jerked the door open. I recalled the detail of his brown and white body shuddering in fear against my side, pleading with his eyes for me not to let him go. I said how creeped out I was by the man’s energy and the fact the only few words we exchanged were him proclaiming, “dat’s mine!” and me responding steadily, “I know.” I told her how afraid I was to heighten his rage by telling my what my inner voice was saying which was, “fuck off, you loathsome piece of shit. He is not an ‘it’ and you don’t own him.”

Diane reassured me that I’d done the right thing keeping my mouth shut and driving away. She also said she would have let him back in her car when out of sight like I did. I told her I was scared and wished Steve were home. She said, “Steve’s not home but his guns are! You want one?” I laughed a little, a welcome bit of lightness in what had turned in to a very heavy afternoon. I decided against borrowing a firearm, knowing little to nothing about handguns. She sweetly and sincerely offered herself up in service of security if need be. She said you just call me if he shows up, I’ll come stand up to him with you. She too was an imposing figure, close to six-feet-tall with a playful but no-bullshit way of being. “That makes me feel better Diane, I’m really just hoping he doesn’t know where we are.” She reassured me, “he probably doesn’t. Here I’ll get you a leash and a collar. What else? You’ll need some food, I’ll get that too.” I followed her around as she gathered up these things and then left, again with a dash, wondering while I ran what was going on at our place.

The car was empty. Sheryl and the dog were out of sight. I went inside and didn’t see them there either. But through the windows on the back deck I could see Sheryl, hugging the big animal. I went out and sat with them. I began inspecting our fugitive friend and saw that he had blood around his neck and all down his back. I parted the fur and saw puncture wounds, lots of them. One so deep, I could have put my pinky finger almost completely inside it. I stopped inspecting and put my arms around the shaking dog and looked him in the eyes. I spoke sweetly to him, telling him he was okay and that no-one was going to hurt him anymore. He licked me with his big tongue, spreading slobber all over my face. I moved my head next to his and squeezed him tighter. He relaxed into me, his heavy weight slowly pushed me over until we were both laying flat on the deck, my arms around him. His front legs, as big as a human teenage boy’s, were around my torso. We laid there for some time.

Finally the smell of him overwhelmed the impulse to comfort him. I knew also that his wounds needed to be tended. With pragmatism setting in the realization dawned that we had no way to contain him outside so he would probably need to come in our house. I decided he needed a bath, definitely needed a bath.

I told him, “you need a bath Mr. Butterman.” His ears perked and he looked at me squarely as if he understood. I had already put the collar on him, “now,” I told him, “I’m going to put this leash on you and we will go down there in the grass to get you cleaned up.” Sheryl ran ahead and got the hose over to the area and then headed inside for shampoo. I took, “Mr. Butterman” down the steps to the grass and began to spray him gently with the hose. He stood still a willing participant in his bath. Sheryl arrived with some dog shampoo from the garage and I took it, telling him, “I’m going to soap you up now Butterman.” He let me. Sheryl headed back inside for towels. I continued to scrub the stench and filth off of Mr. Butterman, taking special care around his wounds. We were close to finished when Sheryl came back out with two towels. She told me she had gotten the car cover from the garage and put it on my car further hiding it from sight. I felt a little relief that she was thinking like that and that I had such a good ally in this crazy caper.

I finished spraying off the soap. Butterman shook himself, and we headed back to the deck. There, Sheryl and I, dried his now clean fur. He smelled much better, it was time to go in the house.