by Steve Wiandt, Reporter
April 11, 2010
Although Regis the Runaway Dog sounds like a storybook character, he's real -- except he's no longer a runaway. Regis is home safe and sound.
Teri Gibson and her son, Sonny, are glad to be reunited with their dog, Regis, after he ran away and lived outside on his own for 10 days. Gibson said it was a “miracle” that they found him unharmed.
After spending 10 days on his own roaming around the high-traffic area of State Route 8 and Graham Road, Regis returned to his owner, Teri Gibson of Tallmadge, who didn't know if she was ever going see her chocolate standard poodle again.
Gibson and her fiancé, Nick Pierson, were among many people looking for Regis, who will turn 3 in May. Pierson's mother, Peggy Lee of Cuyahoga Falls, looked for Regis every day while Pierson, Gibson and Gibson's 6-year-old son, Sonny, were away on vacation. Many members of Pierson's family joined in the search, including his sister, Dawn Wilson of Tallmadge, who searched for Regis on her lunch hour every day he was missing.
Regis began his wayward journey the evening of March 12 when Lee brought him to her home on Notre Dame Avenue in the Falls with Gibson's two other standard poodles to dog-sit them while their owner was away. Before Lee could get Regis into her house, he broke his collar and ran away. The other two dogs went into the house without a struggle.
"He must have had separation anxiety," Gibson said. "He never ran away before." Gibson said Regis had a name tag and a microchip on his collar, but the collar fell off when it snapped in two. Gibson and Pierson delayed their trip to Orlando for a day to look for Regis, but couldn't find him.
Gibson's parents, Sylvia and Don "Sonny" Kling of Tallmadge, were also among the many people who tirelessly searched for the rambling canine. Mrs. Kling said she saw Regis several times, even as far as two miles north of Graham Road on Hudson Drive, but he never came to her when she called him.
"He acted the way lost dogs act -- he was scared," Mrs. Kling said.
Gibson said she is thankful for the help of the Silver Lake, Cuyahoga Falls and Stow police departments and their dispatchers who fielded calls from people who spotted her dog. Falls Community Service Officer Kenny Johnson said the Falls Police got a lot of calls from concerned citizens, adding that most of the sightings took place at night.
"Everybody got involved in the search," Johnson said. "Thank God he was OK."
Many callers were worried the animal was going to get hit by a car. One Silver Lake Police officer actually saw the dog get clipped by a pickup truck and then run away. Ptl. Amy Brauning said she went off duty at 3 a.m. March 19 and was getting on Route 8 at Graham Road after stopping at a store when she saw a "big, black blur" run across the on-ramp in front of her, but up ahead.
"I wasn't close to him, but I could see he was absolutely huge," Brauning said. "I knew it wasn't a deer, but some kind of big dog. Being a dog lover I pulled over." Brauning said she got out of her vehicle and called to the dog, but he acted scared and didn't come to her, instead running south into Stow on the northbound side of Route 8.
The dog wasn't hurt from its encounter with the truck, Brauning said.
Regis had a regular schedule as he traveled along Graham Road, Brauning said, and stopped at the same restaurants at the same time every night. The dog lived off of food scraps he dug out of trash cans or found in doggy bags left out for him, she said. Although he didn't go hungry, he still lost weight while he was on his own, Gibson said.
Gibson said that after spending seven "miserable" days at Disney World she, Pierson and Sonny drove all day March 21 to get home, and then rejoined the search party with practically no sleep. Pierson, she said, was out all night and fell asleep in a park where two Falls officers found him and helped him on his way.
Regis was reunited with Gibson the following evening, March 22. Brauning was sitting in her cruiser at Crystal Lake when two women from Kent stopped and told her they saw a big stray dog along Graham Road. Brauning said she knew Gibson and her son were nearby and called her cell phone.
With Brauning's help, Gibson found Regis near the northbound on-ramp of Route 8. Holding her dog again was an unforgettable moment for Gibson.
"It was like a scene out of a movie," Gibson said. "When Regis heard my voice, he came running and jumped on me, crying and howling like a big baby. He was so happy to see us."
While at Disney World, Gibson said she and her son threw a penny in every fountain or wishing well they saw and said a prayer that they would get Regis back safe and sound.
"We did a lot of praying," she said. "It must have paid off, because this is a miracle. This is a happy-ending story."
Source: http://www.fallsnewspress.com/news/article/4806094
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