By Barry Paddock and Katie Nelson, Daily News Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 16th 2010, 4:50 PM
Sugar a basset hound/bulldog mix, center, sits down with Albert Belman, right, his wife Drucie, center, and sons Leo, 7, right, and Henry 10.
Sweet relief: Sugar is home!
A beloved Brooklyn mutt that had vanished into snowy Prospect Park was found Tuesday shivering and tied to a tree.
The French bulldog/basset hound mix named Sugar vanished last Wednesday. Soon after, a money-hungry man called the family demanding a ransom.
When a flustered Drucie Belman offered only $50 - a figure she just blurted out and later regretted as too low - the dognapper hung up . The tale of woe was featured by Daily News columnist Michael Daly on Sunday.
The family - including husband Albert, 42, and their sons, Henry, 10, and Leo, 7 - plastered Park Slope with posters and searched Prospect Park.
Calls came in, but many were hangups - and some were downright cruel. "Someone called up yesterday and said, 'Sugar's dead,'" Belman said.
The Belman family was so forlorn they canceled a trip to Disney World. But at 12:30 p.m. yesterday, the call they had hoped would come did: A man named Jaime was on the other line and said he saw Sugar in the park, tied to a branch. The entire family raced to the scene.
"I could see her little bat ears in the distance, and I burst into tears," the mom said. "I grabbed her up, and we all hugged her at the same time."
Sugar had a bite wound on her front paw, so they rushed the pooch to a vet. After antibiotics and painkillers, Sugar was homeward-bound.
Once inside the apartment, Sugar devoured a bowl of rice and eggs - she had lost 8 pounds during her six-day ordeal.
Leo covered Sugar in little-boy kisses.
"I love Sugar," he declared, and promised the dazed dog, "I'm only gonna move away from you if I need a snack."
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/02/16/2010-02-16_found_lost_bklyn_pup_sugar_held_for_ransom_then_returned_to_family_by_good_samar.html #ixzz0iuTKAQhE
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