By PETER DAY
Senior Reporter
LUCERNE VALLEY • For many Lucerne Valley residents, the sight of a large, reddish-colored dog slowly ambling through the town was a source of comfort.
He was always there.
But sometime during the night of Saturday, Oct. 25, the pooch known as “Bear” or “Chow Chow” died, apparently struck by a vehicle on the highway in front of the library.
“I got a phone call Sunday morning saying he was hit,” says Becky Lorimor, who has cared for the dog for the past three or four years.
A friend picked up the dog and took him to a local veterinarian for cremation, she says.
Lorimor wasn’t the only one to take care of Bear. He would walk down to the nearby China House Restaurant. But residents most commonly saw him getting a drink of water or a few bites of food at the Lucerne Valley Market and Hardware Store.
“When a stray shows up, customers and staffers, including myself, go crazy to feed and water him, and oftentimes someone will adopt the stray and take him home,” remembers Linda Gommel, owner of the Market. “This time, however, Chow Chow would not be adopted or even pet. He was wary of people and wouldn’t let anyone near him. Thus he became a ‘project.’ Dog lovers wanted to overcome his wariness with, what else, food.”
Gradually the dog became friendlier, and Gommel decided it was time to not give him as many tasty treats, which was making him gain weight.
Nobody is exactly sure when the dog first came to town, or why it showed up. Some believe he was “dumped” here by an uncaring owner.
Lorimor estimates it’s been around five or six years since he showed up. Gommel thinks it’s maybe three or four.
But Tracy Quillen, a local sign painter, believes it could be a lot longer.
“That dog’s been around forever,” he says.
He remembers Chow Chow wandering the streets around the time he graduated from Lucerne Valley High School — in 1995.
It’s fitting, Lorimor says, for the town dog to get a memorial tribute. The owner of Lucerne Valley Tire Shop has agreed to let the town put a memorial plaque on his property, another spot the dog called home.
Lorimor finally was making headway getting the dog to come in her home, next to the tire shop. She would feed him and rub his tummy as he rolled over on his back.
“I tried to make him a home buddy dog,” she said.
But he would never stay inside. He preferred slipping on a bed of pebbles outside or wander to a secret spot somewhere behind Pioneer Park.
Losing him hurts, she says.
“I cried,” Lorimor says. “I still go home and expect to see him. Even my little dog misses him.”