By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
Published May 8, 2008 at 1:27 p.m.
Buddy waits patiently during the drive to Fort Collins on Saturday to be reunited with his owner, Mark Hench.
Buddy, a calendar-cute white mop of a lap dog, was swiped in California, showed up in Texas seven months later and now is on his way to Colorado to be reunited with the astonished man who loves him.
Buddy's odyssey was made possible by the kindness of strangers and his owner's decision to get an ID chip placed under the dog's skin.
"My prayers have been answered," Mark Hench, a disabled man who lives in Fort Collins, said Thursday. "I have no family. Buddy is my little son."
Before Hench got sick, he owned a body shop in Ventura, Calif. Last summer, he went to an animal shelter and bought Buddy, a bichon frise.
One day, according to the account of a neighbor, a guy on a bicycle came by the shop, grabbed Buddy, put him in the bike's basket and pedaled off.
"For three months, I drove up and down the streets looking for Buddy," Hench said. "I was very upset."
Then Hench fell sick and wasn't able to work anymore. His daughter in Fort Collins arranged for him to move there. Several months had gone by when, on April 17, Hench got a call.
In a Texas accent, a woman said, "Honey, we have your bichon here. Do you want to swing by and pick him up?"
When Hench found out that the call was from Fort Worth, he said, no, he really couldn't just swing by. The animal control officer, Ginger Leach, didn't give up.
She called a number that lists all the volunteer animal rescuers in north Texas. That's how Love Frazar, transportation coordinator for Rescue Angels on Wheels, got involved.
A Colorado Springs couple in the rescue group volunteered to take him back to their city; they happened to be vacationing in Texas. Another volunteer will bring Buddy to Highlands Ranch, where Gloria Pollock will pick him up, drive to Fort Collins and "put him on his daddy's doorstep," Frazar said.
Buddy is reunited with his owner, Mark Hench, in Fort Collins on Saturday.
That should happen sometime Saturday afternoon. No one involved has any idea how Buddy got from California to Texas.
Source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/08/arf-dogs-multistate-journey-has-happy-ending/
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