Skipper, papillion

A doggone good story
Family reunited with runaway canine
Dawn Castro, The Valdosta Daily Times
March 30, 2010

VALDOSTA — A family traveling from Bradenton, Fla., to a cabin in North Carolina earlier this month did not realize they had left their beloved pet behind after a gas stop.

Carol Dimsdale holds Skipper, a dog she helped reunite with a Florida family after the dog jumped out of the family's mini-van in Lake Park.

On March 19, the mother, her four children and the child of a family friend were in a small mini-van with their Papillon, Skipper, tucked safely away in the back. They stopped in Lake Park to get gas, not knowing Skipper jumped out of an open rear door.

As good fortune would have it, Carol Dimsdale of Jacksonville, Fla., was traveling to Valdosta to be by her father’s side during his heart surgery.

“I stopped to get gas in Lake Park and saw a gorgeous black-and-white, very fluffy dog trotting around all the cars,” she said. “The dog was well-groomed, gentle as a lamb and had on a collar.”

Dimsdale picked up the dog, went into the store and inquired if anyone saw anything or came in looking for the dog. She said the store clerk told her that the dog had been wandering around, among the traffic for about 15 minutes.

Dimsdale put the dog in her car and looked for information on his collar. She called the number on the collar, but no one answered.

“I was trying to devise my plan of what I was going to do with my new furry passenger,” she said. She called her daughter, who used the Internet to search veterinary hospitals in Valdosta. The search turned up Baytree Animal Hospital.

Unfamiliar with the area, Dimsdale picked up her two brothers, who were at South Georgia Medical Center with their dad, and the three of them went on a hunt for the veterinary hospital. When she arrived, Baytree Animal Hospital staff members were waiting for her.

“They told me my daughter had already called them and explained the situation,” Dimsdale said. “The staff was so wonderful and the facility was really nice.”

The dog was scanned for a microchip, but he did not have one. Dimsdale was told they could board the dog, but he had to be vaccinated first. She told them she would be back Monday morning to pick him up.

When Dimsdale and her brothers got back to SGMC to be with their dad, they started searching the Internet, trying to locate Skipper’s family. The search brought up a name, address and another phone number, but there was no answer at that one either.

They did property searches, hoping to find at least a neighbor or two so the owners could be alerted about Skipper.

“We just put in random house numbers on that street and called the phone numbers that came up,” Dimsdale said. “On about the fifth one, I got an answer. I asked the woman if she had a neighbor who owns a dog with the description I gave, and she said, Yes.”

It turned out Skipper lived across the street from the woman on the phone. The woman’s husband went to the house and rang the doorbell, but no one came to the door. The couple said they knew where the man of the house worked, so they called him on the job. He told them his family and Skipper went out of town for spring break. He contacted his wife, who was then north of Atlanta, and gave her Dimsdale’s number.

Dimsdale said she had no idea that the dots were being connected as she waited with her phone in hand for some good news.

As she sat by her father’s side with her mind in two places, Dimsdale finally got the call she was hoping to get.

“The owner called me and said, Skipper is in the van, and I told her, No. In fact, he is at Baytree Animal Hospital in Valdosta, Ga.,” said Dimsdale. “Needless to say, she was speechless.”

The owner thought Skipper was snuggled into his favorite spot in the back of the van.

Dimsdale said she could hear what sounded like a little boy in the background saying, “Mom, here’s Skipper’s leash.”

Rather than turn around to retrieve Skipper, the owner’s husband said he would make the drive from Bradenton to Valdosta. The woman and five children continued their roadtrip to the mountains in North Carolina.

“I’ve made some friends out of this ordeal,” Dimsdale said, “with Skipper’s family and the very concerned neighbors who tracked down the husband for me. Skipper’s family even called to check on my dad after his surgery and said they had been praying for him.”

Dimsdale said she called Baytree Animal Hospital when she made it back to Jacksonville to see if Skipper had been picked up. The staff member told her the male owner had picked up Skipper on Saturday morning for the journey back to Bradenton.

Dimsdale said she’s hoping to travel to Bradenton one day with her own two dogs to meet Skipper’s family and his wonderful neighbors.

Source: http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x1612520336/A-doggone-good-story
Printer-friendly version here