Man reunited with dog dumped by W.Va. interstate
April 04, 2009 @ 01:30 PM
MALINDA REINKE, The Dominion Post Herald-Dispatch.com
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — The big brindle dog with the yellow eyes hesitated only for a moment as a familiar voice called his name. “Kyuubi! Come here, Kyuubi!” Then he started running.
Rodriguez and a couple of childhood friends had driven nonstop from California to West Virginia so that Rodriguez could be reunited with the lost 2-year-old Labrador-pit bull mix pup he hadn’t seen since mid-January.
“He looks good,” said Rodriguez, smiling and rubbing his dog’s back just the way he always liked it. “He looks huger!”
The reunion, organized by Pet Helpers Inc., a pet rescue group based in Fairmont, was witnessed by about a dozen volunteers and well-wishers.
According to Rodriguez, Kyuubi (pronounced QB) who Rodriguez had adopted at about 3 months old from a shelter in Los Angeles had been living with him and his girlfriend in Bellview in Marion County.
“In December of last year, she said she needed a break,” Rodriguez said. “So I moved back to California and I told her I’d have Kyuubi shipped out to me. She said she would take care of him for me.”
But a few weeks later, Rodriguez said, the woman texted his cell phone to tell him she was going to abandon the dog along Interstate 79.
What exactly became of Kyuubi for the next month and a half is unclear.
But on the morning of March 9, Bea Dotson, 25, spotted a big, skinny, brindle-colored dog in the front yard of her Pruntytown home. When he didn’t wander away, she went out to investigate.
“He was a little shy,” Dotson said. “I called him, I said, ’Hey, buddy, come here,’ and he actually came up to me. He had these very light brown and yellow eyes. He was really scared and very dirty, but really friendly. I think I fed him almost 10 cups of food, he was so hungry.”
But the thing that most disturbed her, Dotson said, was the dog’s paws. “He was limping. And he had sores on every (pad) of his feet.”
Dotson called Joe Gribbon, owner of Creekside Kennels, who advised her to call Pet Helpers. Terry Buretz, a board member and volunteer for the rescue group, ran a notice about a lost dog for five days on Web sites Fido-finder and Pet911 and Marion County Humane Society’s E-Lert. No one called.
And when they brought the dog to the vet for treatment, they got a surprise — a scanner revealed a microchip. One of the names on the chip was Isaac Rodriguez. It was a defunct phone number, and it took some investigating, but Buretz found another phone number and left a message.
Her phone rang two minutes later.
“Are you missing a dog?” she asked the caller. “I am,” Rodriguez said.
At the kennel in Fairmont, with Kyuubi in his arms, Rodriguez said that, in January, he had called the local humane society and police departments to help find his dog, but no one could help him. He thought Kyuubi was gone from his life.
“This is awesome,” he said, thanking Dotson and Pet Helpers for all they’ve done.
Kyuubi, named after a character in the Japanese anime TV series “Naruto,” seemed content to romp around his master, and everyone around them smiled.
“I’m happy for him, of course,” Dotson had said before the reunion. “But Kyuubi was with us for three weeks and we were getting close to him.”
After the excitement died down, she and Rodriguez stood together with Kyuubi.
“You should have brought them flowers,” Dotson said of Buretz and the others from the rescue group.
“I know, I’m sorry,” the young man said. “But I have hugs.”
“Kyuubi says, ’Where have you been?’ Don’t lose him again.”
“Oh, I won’t,” he answered.
The Pet Helpers volunteers were just happy to witness one of their rescued pets go home.
“When you see those eyes on that dog,” Buretz said, “you wonder how anyone could have ever put him out.”
Source: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x955384987/Man-reunited-with-dog-dumped-by-W-Va-interstate
Also see: http://pethelpersinc.org/helpinghands1.aspx
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