Beboy, small poodle

Reunited: The dog was gone, but not for long
A front-page photo helps bring Beboy back to his once-desperate owner; pet vanished during LarkFest
By David Filkins
Thursday, September 25, 2008

ALBANY -- Winston Wolfe was being interviewed by a radio station Wednesday when he got a call from an unfamiliar number. He ignored it.

Winston Wolfe of Albany gives his dog Beboy a kiss outside their Elm Street apartment

Wolfe was asking the deejay for help finding his dog, Beboy, whose antics made him a mini-celebrity before he vanished Saturday at LarkFest.

When the interview ended, Wolfe checked his voicemail. There was a message from a man who said he found the dog. Wolfe called the man, John Nagy.

On Saturday, the 22-year-old roofer had spotted a small, white cockapoo zipping through the crowd at LarkFest. He watched the dog "run around randomly" for a few minutes before he picked it up. It had no tags or collar. He looked around for its owner. Two hours later, Nagy brought the dog to his grandmother's home in Colonie.

Every morning before work, Nagy stops at the Exxon station at Lincoln and Central avenues to buy the Times Union. When he picked up a copy Wednesday morning, he saw a familiar face on the front page: the dog.

"Oh ... my ... God!" Nagy remembered thinking. The dog had a name. And a master. With a cellphone number.

"What can you tell me about the dog?" Wolfe asked when he called Nagy.

"He has no collar," Nagy said. A friend drove Wolfe to get Beboy.

Nagy's grandmother had fallen in love Beboy. She questioned Wolfe carefully to make sure he was the real owner. Then Beboy heard Wolfe's voice and came running.

On Wednesday afternoon, Wolfe and Beboy were on the stoop of Wolfe's apartment. A tricked-out Acura Integra rolled up to the stop sign at Elm and Phillip streets. The driver looked left, then right and saw Wolfe and Beboy. The windows on the Acura slid down.

"You got that thing back!" the man yelled to Wolfe.

"Yeah, yeah," Wolfe called back.

"Hold on," the man said.

The car zoomed off. Moments later it came speeding down Elm Street and stopped at Wolfe's apartment.

"My girl saw you running through the festival looking for that dog," the man said.

Wolfe laughed. "Tell them how much I love this dog," he said.

The man paused. He shook his head and laughed.

Source: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=723713&category=REGION