June 25, 2008
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. -- An autistic teenager has been reunited with his lost service dog after the dog went missing for more than 48 hours.
Newschannel 32 has learned that the dog wound up in the arms of another family.
The 16-year-old teenager went inside a Wal-Mart with his mother Saturday night, leaving the dog, Leah, inside their van.
A few minutes later, the dog jumped out of the van and into the store, family members said.
Janice Mclain said that her teenage daughter found the dog and noticed that something was wrong.
“I said, ‘you bring her on home and we'll take care of her and put an ad in the paper,'” Mclain said.
The newspaper ad for a "found" Australian cattle dog caught the eye of family friends who saw the story on Newschannel 32.
Mclain said that when the family arrived, her daughter didn’t get the response they expected.
“We were treated like criminals,” Mclain said. “She started hollering at us, ‘you need to leave what's not yours alone,’ and I said, ‘look, we did you a favor.'”
Mclain said her family is distraught by their treatment because they only tried to do right by the animal.
The autistic teenager’s family has admitted that their reaction was harsh, but that it was due to the stress from losing the dog.
The boy had trouble functioning without his service dog.
The teenager’s mother said that she plans to write a letter expressing her gratitude to the family that found their service dog.
Source: http://www.wlky.com/family/16702260/detail.html
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