Tillie and Phoebe’s not-so-excellent adventure

Islander and Herban Feast/Herban Bloom owner BJ Duft’s dogs Tillie and Phoebe are, for the moment at least, the world’s most famous pets.

In a remarkable story made even more so by its seemingly unprecedented global reach, Duft’s canine companions’ misadventure, devotion and Hollywood-ending rescue has, over the past week, touched the hearts, computer and TV screens of millions from Washington to the United Kingdom to Hong Kong.

“It’s crazy,” said Duft. “But I think it’s very telling that the world wants a feel-good story right now.”

The saga began on Sept. 8, when Phoebe, a 4-year-old basset hound, and Tillie, an 11-year-old setter mix, wandered off while Duft was hosting a get-together at his home. The two have a history of off-property shenanigans according to Duft, despite the fact that his property is fully fenced and gated. Later that same night, a resident reached out to Duft reporting that they had seen Tillie stuck in a bog and Phoebe was standing by the water’s edge. However, the dogs then seemingly disappeared, with no further sightings after the setter apparently freed herself from the bog. That’s when Duft called Amy Carey at Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP).

After nearly a week of searching, Carey went to check on a report from islander Joe Curiel. He said he had seen a reddish dog on his property a few times over several days. According to Curiel, the dog had run back into the ravine where it had come from every time he tried to approach it. Heading into the ravine, Carey called out for Tillie instinctively, even though she said that dogs will not usually respond if they’re hurt or scared. To her surprise, she received a very quiet “woof” in response. And it was that woof that led her to Tillie, who was lying next to a concrete cistern, with her head resting on the edge. Carey’s heart sank when she saw the cistern, afraid that Phoebe had fallen in and not survived. But when she looked over the edge where the heroic Tillie was dutifully on guard, there was Phoebe, perched on a small pile of rocks at the bottom, looking tired and sad, but very much alive.

The friendship between the two dogs started roughly two years ago at a dog daycare in Seattle, Duft said. He has had Tillie since she was a puppy but has only had Phoebe since she was 2. The two dogs met at the daycare and, despite the age difference, became fast friends. Duft wasn’t aware of how close they were at the time, he said, until one day the owner of the daycare told him that Phoebe’s owner had to move away, and she asked if Duft might consider adopting the young basset because of the relationship she’d seen develop between the dogs. Duft adopted Phoebe, who eventually turned Tillie the homebody into her partner in roaming crime.

And it is the picture that Carey snapped with her cell phone at the moment she discovered the two lost friends (to send to Duft), and that accompanied VIPP’s Facebook post with the good news, that has made its way around the globe.

The media circus started with KING5 News picking up the VIPP Facebook post, and from there it spread like wildfire across the internet, hitting not only online media outlets but TV, print and YouTube as well. Just some of the entities that have run or are planning to run the story include: ABC News, Good Morning America, BuzzFeed, Inside Edition, U.S. News and World Report, Jezebel, the New York Daily News, People Magazine, the U.K’s Daily Mirror, Al Arabiya (Middle East), Stuff.Co (New Zealand), MSN, USA Today and countless TV network affiliate websites across the U.S. and Canada. And in a move that set the bar to an entirely new level, a Hong Kong-based news site created a video animation of the entire story. As of this Monday morning writing, the original post on VIPP’s Facebook page has been shared nearly 17,000 times and has received over 3,200 comments from people all over the world.

While shocked at the amount of media attention the story has received, Carey said she’s been more than happy to talk to those wanting to hear it in the hope that maybe it will help save another dog. “Dogs don’t just disappear,” she said. “You will usually have people reporting that they’ve seen them. So if no one is seeing them, you know you need to search as they are most likely stuck or in trouble somewhere.” And things like water cisterns, uncovered wells, decrepit buildings and steep slopes can all be deadly for dogs or other animals, as well as children, so property owners should be aware of the possible dangers and take appropriate actions to make things safer.

Within a few days of Phoebe and Tillie’s rescue, Curiel took a jackhammer to the 90-year-old cistern where the wandering basset had been trapped, and removed it completely. Duft, for his part, has ordered a GPS collar for his adventuresome hound.

To see the post and story that started it all, as well as the inimitable animation on the Hong Kong news site, see Vashon Island Pet Protectors (www.vipp.org) on Facebook.