About Pookie Louise Mueller, the Nanny

Angel Pookie Louise Mueller was our beloved rescue dog that we adopted in 2013 prior to the birth of and arrival to Idyllwild of Mayor Max the Second and Deputy Co-Mayors Mitzi and Mikey. Pookie was rescued by Marty Krieger and Idyllwild Animal Rescue Friends (ARF) and adopted by us (Phyllis Mueller and Glenn Warren) just a few days after the passing of Mayor Max the First.

Pookie had been abandoned at Lake Hemet and had become quite a bit wild in order to survive in the wild. She remains in our hearts so strongly that she is commemorated here today on our Mayor Max website. We believe she will return to us someday in the physical form, and she feels as if she is with us today spiritually because our memories and experiences with her remain so vivid and real.

No one ever knew her age. She lived with us for two years before passing from old age. We had estimates from veterinarians that her age was anywhere between 10 and 17.

She helped raise the second generation of the Mayors of Idyllwild and became their nanny. Pookie took full responsibility for all their goodness, mischief, antics, and friskiness. She became handicapped towards the end of her life, but her wheels enabled her to stay happily mobile and active all of her days.

We have included here a story about what it was like for her living as an abandoned dog at Lake Hemet for an estimated two years before being rescued.

She remains in our hearts forever, and the feeling of her presence and our memories of her have not deminished with time.

The beautiful painting was done by our dear friend, Lois Sheppard. The other pictuers of Pookie are some of our favorites. You can also see her alive and well in our Wild Dogs film included in the Documentaries section of this website.

Pookie Surviving in the Wild
By Angel Pookie Louise Mueller

Hello Everyone!

My name is Pookie Louise Mueller, and I want to tell you the story of my life for the period of time where I was an abandoned dog, living in the wild for approximately two years.

When I was born, I actually had a wonderful life and a wonderful owner. Life was great, and he took good care of me. One day, he suddenly went to Heaven, and I was left with no one to care for me. A man who knew my owner decided to take me to Lake Hemet and just leave me there. He figured someone would find me and take care of me, and I would always have a great water supply at the lake. So I would be fine, he thought.

In the end, he was right. After two years, someone at Lake Hemet noticed that I had been coming down to the lake to drink water on a regular basis. The people who saw me over those years just thought I was one of the pets who belonged to one of the people that live at the lake. So no one did anything for the longest time. But when they saw me coming to the lake for water from the wild side of the lake rather than where people or campers are located, they realized I must have been abandoned. So they called Idyllwild Animal Rescue Friends, and Marty Krieger came and caught me. Marty took me to the rescue, and I was adopted a few days later by Phyllis and Glenn.

I was so muddy when Marty caught me that he rinsed me off in the lake before putting me in his car. I was so tired after two years of little sleep, I immediately knew I was safe, and I passed out and went to sleep in Marty’s car. It felt great to feel safe and to get some much-needed rest. What a relief!

Here is what it was like to be an abandoned dog.

I learned to eat all kinds of strange food. I was always hungry, and I lost a lot of weight. I was a little emaciated by the time I was rescued.

My main source of food was bugs, anything that moved. I could catch just about any bug, and I ate a lot of them, including squiggly centipedes, beetles, spiders, moths, ants, and more. Some of the bugs have an interesting flavor, a little vinegary and hickory I’m thinking. I learned NOT to eat bees or wasps. Bugs squiggle as they go down. It’s kind of a strange feeling, and I got used to it.

I would chomp on fresh grasses that grow after the rains, and I would also eat tree bark, small branches, pine cones, and acorns. Sometimes I had to compete with a squirrel for pine cones and acorns. That was always a funny debate that I would win simply because I was bigger if I got the food first. But the squirrels were pretty fast when climbing trees, so they always won if they got to the pine cone or acorn first. When I got the pine cone, sometimes the squirrels would climb up on a branch and protest my presence by chirping loudly and stomping their feet.

I also ate remnants of dead wildlife, and I learned to chew and swallow the leftover bones of these dead animals.

Garbage was another staple for me. Many campers clean up for themselves, and I am happy to say that lots of them don’t. And that probably helped save me too. Some campers and hikers would offer me food too, but I became afraid of everything, so I never really let people get too close to me, and I definitely would not let them catch me. They would throw me food or leave me something. I really loved all my treasured camper food. I also ate the paper wrappings. If I got hungry enough and couldn’t find anything in the wrappers, I would just eat the wrappers. I ate of lot of paper products.

The lake water was delicious to drink but I was always at risk coming down to the lake edge to drink because I was exposed and people and other animals could see me there. I was pretty much in fear my entire time of abandonment, so I learned to hide and stay still as much as possible. But I had to forage for food to survive, so I also stayed active in the pursuit of food. I was always walking a lot to find food.

I learned to stay totally alert to every little sound, and I was always moving my head back and forth and scanning the environment.

My biggest fear was the coyotes. They were constantly trying to turn me into their dinner. I immediately had to figure out a way to deal with them, and I did learn what to do. If I saw one, I would attack it. I would run right for it with tremendous speed, and I would bite it and growl. I was so fast that I could cause fear in any coyote and get them on the run. I didn’t wait for them to pursue me, and I never ran from them. I attacked.

I became so aggressive with my attacks that I believe this is the single most reason why I survived in the wild.

I had a healthy respect for and fear of mountain lions and bobcats as well, but mountain lions and bobcats were not nearly as interested in me as the coyotes, and the coyotes were far more prevalent.

I was not the only animal coming out to drink from the lake. Pretty much every mountain lion, bobcat, and coyote in the area comes to imbibe in the lake.

One of the downsides about hiding in and under bushes and trees is tree sap. It gets all over you and in between your toes, and things start to stick to you. It’s uncomfortable and hard to get off, so you constantly work on it. There’s nothing worse than having a little rock stuck between your toes stuck in tree sap. Ouch! Or one time, I had about 30 leaves stuck to the sap that was stuck to my fur. It was hard to move quietly. I sounded like a walking tree. Some of the leaves were stuck to my rump. Those leaves were very hard to reach and remove.

Hiding is stillness. You can become so motionless, you become invisible. Rabbits know this technique very well. I learned it from them. The rabbits and I spend time together. We both deal with the same concerns. They are very sweet and don’t appear to eat any bugs but they love grass and plants.

One of the rabbits and I would always stay near each other when we would run into each other foraging for food. We never talked much, but the rabbit had the sweetest smile I have ever seen, and she always smiled when she saw me. We enjoyed each other’s company, and I did feel like I had a buddy whenever I saw her. I felt like she was my sister somehow. I always smiled back at her. We had such a close connection, and I truly enjoyed my time with her at Lake Hemet.

I know from my time at Lake Hemet that I went from being a domestic dog to a completely wild dog. The wildness was a part of me all along, and I never knew that until I was on my own.

One thing about Lake Hemet: It can be very cold in the winter, even as low as 5 to 10 degrees at night. I am completely fine with the cold until about 30 degrees, and then I start looking for shelter. On the really cold nights when it got late, I would quietly walk over to the housing area where people live. I could usually find some place under a house that had some warmth. I had a couple of favorite places where I could hide and sleep and feel a little bit safe. As a wild animal, you always sleep “with one eye open” as they say, but you always have to stay alert. When I would start to hear people getting up and moving around in the house, that’s when I would leave. Sometimes a lady who noticed my tracks started to leave out a little food for me. That was very helpful in the winter.

Mostly, wild animals deal with the cold by just ignoring it. You feel it but you don’t pay attention to it!

One of the things that protects me is that I can smell everything from 50 miles around. So all night, just through my nose and ears, I can monitor the movement of all the wildlife in the area. For example, on most nights there’s a dash of bobcat and mountain lion in the air, and there are a whole lot of coyote and deer moving around too. The deer are very quiet when they walk, but I hear the deer crunching on the plants. It’s like a night-time movie, and I get to see it all through my nose and ears.

How all this data is known about my life for two years is that I told my forever home parents what life was like for me by showing how I was when they adopted me. In the house or on walks, I would demonstrate these behaviors.

One night, I saw a coyote, and I attacked and maimed it right in front of my dad, Glenn. I ended up in the hospital too, but the coyote got a broken leg and limped away. I constantly ate bugs in and out of the house. If I ever found a bone on a walk, I would grab it and eat it. I would NOT let Phyllis or Glenn take it away from me. I cherished the bones. I would also grab and eat any paper trash I found. I particularly liked hamburger wrappers from McDonald’s. I would hide in the house and remain motionless. I would patrol in and out of the house for the rest of my life, turning my head to the left and the right always looking for the danger. I was constantly foraging for food even though they fed me plenty. I never let a spider live. My mom, Phyllis, gave me several awards for being a spider catcher. And every behavior described above I demonstrated to Phyllis and Glenn. Plus, I could communicate the details of my life via thought to Phyllis. She is very good at perceiving the images I would send to her with my thoughts about my experiences.

This is what it was like for me as a wild dog at Lake Hemet.

I love you with all my angel heart.

Love always,

Angel Pookie Louise Mueller