Rescued from the wilds, Benjie finds new life

Two years ago, Thunderbird Farms residents occasionally saw a small dog running through the fields, but no one was able to catch him.

In essence, the dog turned himself in, finding refuge in the shade of a van at a residence. The family brought him to Hope Pedigo. “They know I’ll take in anybody,” she says.

Despite being in obvious trouble, the dog was sweet and loving. And he needed help.

“He was completely matted. He had ticks on him, he had fleas on him, he had sticks grown into his fur,” Pedigo says. “You could not tell what kind of dog he was.”

While trying to find the dog’s owner, she and her family started calling him Benjie. They took him to Maricopa Animal Hospital to get him cleaned and checked out. The veterinarian discovered layers of ticks – the ticks on his outer fur were dead.

“The vet told me it was because of all of the chemicals on the fields that he was running through,” Pedigo says.

The veterinarian estimated his age at about 1 year old and estimated he had been in the wild for weeks. Unable to find an owner, they had Benjie vaccinated and fixed.

“He has a very different life now,” Pedigo says. “Basically his life is going outside and going to the bathroom and then he comes inside and lies down next to me all day. Now he has a little puffy bed and all his toys.”

Once he was given a thorough clipping, he did not look like the same dog. Before long, he did not act like the same dog.

When he first arrived, Benjie was scared and shaking. After two weeks, it was his yard.

“I could see he got the attitude of ‘It’s never going to happen again,’” Pedigo says.

He has also revealed himself as an alpha male. Though he literally bows down to the Pedigos (“he puts his head down and his butt in the air”), he pulls rank on any other animal that comes into the house.

“He’s the boss. He will pee on them. He will take their toys,” Pedigo says. “We had a big mastiff at the house, and he took all of his toys into his bed and then laid on them. He would pick up the mastiff’s bone and then chew it and look at him. And the mastiff would just lie down in front of him and whine. And I was like, ‘Wow, you’ve got it going on.’”

Benjie is loving and sweet with adults and older children. One of his quirks, however, is that young children stress him out. Pedigo says it specifically seems to be children age 5 and under.

That becomes an issue because Pedigo runs a home daycare. She keeps him separate from the children to keep his stress level down, but it is a reminder for her she is essentially fostering Benjie until they can find a permanent home for him.

His life on the lam created other quirks as well. Because he was on his own for so long, he became accustomed to eating garbage. “He’d see a napkin, he’d eat a napkin because there was a shred of food on it,” Pedigo says.

She eventually broke him of that habit by hiding all of the trash cans in the house. “But even to this day when he sees a napkin, he gets excited. It’s so sad,” she says.

Like an only child, he learned how to amuse himself in the wild. Now he will get up in the middle of the night and play with a tennis ball by himself.

He likes the quiet life, a soft life far away from the fields. “He’s such a lover,” she says. “He’s such a sweetie.”

To learn about Benjie, contact Hope at Facebook.com/Hope.Pedigo.

April 23 is Lost Dog Awareness Day. Learn more at Facebook.com/LostDogsArizona.

Benjie
Age: 3
Breed: Poodle mix
Color: White
Weight: Under 20 pounds
Best Trick: Requesting more tummy rubs
Favorite Toy: Anything that squeaks
Favorite Snack: Beef jerky
Fun Fact: His name comes not from the famous movie canine but is a reference to a character played by Matthew McConaughey in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”