A dog-gone Grand Isle mystery

Karen LaCorte has been living on Grand Isle for some time now. Actually she splits her time between there and her home in New Jersey, but is certainly on Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island often enough to call it home.

There has been a certain degree of culture shock for Karen. What appeared as a dismissive official response to her discovery of dead pelicans on the beach last year – it appeared that they had been shot – was a somewhat difficult for her to process.

The Grand Isle Police Department on the other hand has had a lot to keep it busy. The arrests of some of its ranking members earlier this year as part of an investigation into widespread corruption is among the issues. That’s not meant as a slap, it’s just a matter of fact.

Karen is aware of this as well. She also acknowledges it hasn’t likely played a role in official disregard of a new matter that’s come up.

It should be noted here that Karen is not involved with politics or related matters. She stays very busy with her day job, as CFO and controller of a company in New Jersey that does on-site Kosher catering. She’s been with the company a long time and considers herself blessed because they are all for her being a telecommuter. When traveling between Grand Isle and New Jersey Karen is most often in the company of Constantine Ella von Blakhaus, who answers to the name of Ella, and is a gorgeous German shepherd.

It was on a Saturday evening that Ella – almost always in Karen’s sight – was within the front yard of the house, regarding passing traffic and people, and hardly ever making a fuss.

“I didn’t know something was up,” Karen said. “But it was like she saw a ghost. She came running, flying into the house through the French doors.”

The cause of this behavior could not be determined at the time. But by Tuesday night it was obvious something was wrong.

“She started to act very strange and she would not get up off the floor,” Karen said. She had heard odd noises, the kind most dog owners know indicates a problem, that obsessive licking sound. Upon closer investigation Karen saw blood. Perhaps it was a particularly insistent tick, maybe something else …

A trip to the veterinarian the next day confirmed that something was indeed very wrong. There were two black spots on the X-ray of the area. And the indications were strong that somehow Ella was hit by some sort of spray-shot, like pellets from a shotgun.

“He couldn’t say it with 100 percent certainty,” Karen said, grateful that no vital organs were affected. There were was a nasty infection. The only way to fully determine the problem would have been surgery, which both Karen and the doc were against.

When she got home with Ella, Karen tried to reach the police chief, Laine Landry, who has replaced the retired chief, Euris Dubois. The matter of a shot dog on the main drag in Grand Isle, Karen figured, is something a police chief would want to know about.

But as of Monday – more than a week since the call to him was made – there has been no response.

“I really want to talk to him about this,” Karen said. “This is like one of my children.”

The good news is that since her treatment Ella has been on the mend. She goes to the beach with Karen every day, on a lease, as has for a long time now. Ella has also changed.

She is much more aware of sounds and passing cars. She seems to be on high alert.

Karen wants to tell Ella it’s okay, that it was likely just a random thig that happened, but she hasn’t quite convinced herself of that. A call from the police chief might help toward that end. But the phone has not rung, except for an inquiry from a nosey columnist. So far. •