Buster, Lhasa apso-mini cocker spaniel

Lost and Found Dogs: Happy Endings
06.08.09

We had Buster, a mixed Lhasa Apso-mini cocker spaniel, for 11 years before he ran away in the late 1990s in downtown Denver.

When we lived in the suburbs of Denver, during the 1980s, he’d trotted down the street a few times, but always came home quickly. This time, he escaped out the front door of our downtown building, carelessly left open by someone. The Colorado Rockies’ baseball game had just ended, and the streets were full of people, cars and the general pandemonium that follows a baseball game. Our other dog, Mozart, a Portuguese Water Dog (yes, the Obama variety) also ran out, but he quickly returned when we called his name. Buster did not come home with Mozart.

Because he was so small, and the color of asphalt, he blended in with the congested traffic on the street.

Although a family dog, Buster clearly owned my daughter. C. She was 17 at the time, off working, and when she came home, late that day, and found Buster gone, she was heartbroken.

I walked the streets with her, calling "Buster, Buster," but no dog came running to our call. Our family didn’t sleep much that night or the next. We made numerous calls to the pound, and posted flyers on the nearby telephone poles (some in Spanish) seeking Buster’s return, mentioning a reward. I placed classified ads in both city newspapers (there were still two at the time) and waited. (This was in the days before Craigs List, or I would have gone there, also).

After a few days, with no sign of Buster, I feared the worst. Either he’d been run over or dog-napped. C was inconsolable.

A few days later, I got two phone calls in a row - each person describing a dog they’d found and seeking the reward; one dog was a standard poodle; the other a large mixed breed (apparently the reward was more important than the description of our missing dog). I was close to giving up hope (my ESP abilities always are impacted by personal matters of the heart). C just prayed and prayed.

Just when I decided I would have to learn to live without Buster (who liked to sit at my feet, like a cat, while I wrote), the phone rang again. Fortunately, C was at home. The man calling said he’d read the missing dog ad in the newspaper and thought he had found him.

He’d kept a found dog for almost two weeks (about the time Buster disappeared). He’d seen him running down the street, weaving in and out of traffic, and thought he’d better collect him to keep him out of harm’s way. He kept thinking there would be some way to learn about who the dog belonged to (he had a collar and a rabies tag, but no phone number).

He said the dog was then at a friend’s house, because the friend had a yard where he could be safe. This detail raised an alarm within me, but he described Buster so perfectly, I decided I had no choice but to trust him. So C and I arranged to meet him and his wife out front of the downtown bus station,which was his suggestion.

"You’ll recognize me, because I look like Jesus," he said. He also said he’d take us to his friend’s home, which wasn’t far from downtown so we could claim our dog, who he had re-named "Gizmo."

My daughter and I were a bit apprehensive about meeting and driving around with strangers, but we were so eager to get Buster/Gizmo back, we went to the bus station. There, we found our dog-finders, sitting on the sidewalk - a long-haired man of about 30 or so and his wife. It turned out they were homeless, and they and Buster/Gizmo had been living on the streets, and along the river that ran through downtown since the day he took off.

The man said he worried about the dog, because he was so little and scared, but he always made sure to feed him.

"We walk a lot," he told me. "And when he couldn’t keep up, I found a grocery cart, and wheeled him around in it. He was a very good boy," he said. "Once or twice when we were sleeping by the river, he barked to alert us when someone approached. He’s a good guard dog."

The man recounted how he’d gone to the library that very day and looked on the computer for any notices of missing dogs in the newspaper. That’s how he’d found our ad. It had taken him a while to get to the library and to call from there, but the fact was, he cared enough to try to find us.

And so they piled into our car and in 15 minutes or so, we had reached the "friend’s" house. The man went inside and came out with Buster, who was sporting a twine leash attached to his collar. Buster was shivering like mad, but so overjoyed to see C, he started whimpering. I have no doubt he was confused.

We drove the couple back to the bus station and offered them the reward we promised. They didn’t want to take the cash, at first, but then decided it would buy them a bus ticket out of town, to a better place and a better life. "I’m really going to miss him," the man said. "Gizmo was a great pet."

We then took Buster to the vet, and because he’d been outside, by the river, during some pretty heavy thunderstorms, he’d come down with bronchitis. His coat was matted and full of thorns and weeds. We got him some meds and a bath, and he returned to life pretty much as normal, given his nearly two-week adventure on the streets and down by the river.

Some time later, I ran into a neighbor/friend who worked for the police department. When I told her Buster’s story, she told me one of her own.

It seems a colleague from the PD told her he’d seen a homeless couple downtown, wheeling a small dog around in a grocery cart, like he was their baby. He thought it was an amusing sight, so he told her about it. Of course, my friend didn’t connect the story with us, until I explained what thad happened.

The moral of this story is: never give up on your lost pet. You never know when or how s/he will come home - even weeks, months or years later.

Another few morals : sometimes when you lose a pet and the pet returns, you learn valuable lessons about what you truly value in life.

And finally: You can also learn lessons from those who find or help you reunite with your dog. These are usually the compassionate people who understand the depth of your bond with your pet.

Source: http://factoidz.com/lost-found-dogs-3-happy-ending-tales-as-told-by-virginia-woolf-and-yours-truly/