Riley, weimeraner

This article is actually comment #32 to an article published before the dog was returned. I couldn't find the actual publication of this article.


Dog returned after month-long adventure
Adopted owner yields to original family
By Bob White
posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 12:42:28 PM by SLB
Since disappearing from her Radcliff home last month, 2-year-old Riley has been picked up, dropped off, impounded, injected, micro-chipped, adopted by a Fort Knox soldier, pictured on television and now returned to her original owners.

Riley’s reunion came Friday afternoon after pleading by her owners spurred Fort Knox leaders to arrange a meeting that led to the Weimeraner’s return. Fort Knox officials say the dog was returned with consent from its adopted owner.

The short-haired gray dog went missing in mid-June from James and Kim Church’s Kentucky Circle home.

Shortly thereafter, a soldier found the dog near the U.S. Army post and brought it to Fort Knox and handed it over to military police, who, in turn, gave it to the Fort Knox Stray Animal Facility.

The shelter asks people to deliver strays to MPs, rather than bringing animals directly to the shelter.

Riley arrived at the pound with no tags, so no one knew her name or home address.

The Churches, meanwhile, were calling every pound, veterinarian and shelter for which they could find a phone number. They had no knowledge of the stray facility on Fort Knox, which has not been considered a public facility in recent years.

A “lost dog” Internet ad helped the Churches discover a dog matching Riley’s description at Fort Knox. But the dog was adopted June 26 by a Knox soldier.

Fort Knox officials told the Churches and reporters last week that the adopted owner, a soldier, didn’t want to return the dog. The soldier legally adopted the pet and paid the shelter $85 for shots and microchip tags.

Fort Knox public affairs officials say the adopted owner decided to hand the dog over a day after learning of the Churches’ efforts to find and reclaim their pet.

James Church said post leadership was present, along with Riley and the adopted owner during the handoff.

“Honestly, I don’t know why they gave it back. I’m just glad they did,” James Church said. “I kinda’ felt sorry for that family, since they’d gone through the right channels to get the dog.”

Church said the biggest problem in regaining custody of Riley was misinformation.

“First they said the dog was picked up on Knox and we saw paperwork that said the dog was pickup up on Wilson Road,” Church said. “They told us she had no collar when she came in, but we know she had the collar coming in…”

Church said lack of information bout the Fort Knox Stray Animal Facility complicated the search. Church said he found no number listed for the pound on post. He said no other shelters he phoned provided him information about the facility.

“If you’re not affiliated with Fort Knox, you don’t have any way to know about the (stray facility there),” Church said.

Fort Knox Public Affairs Officer Connie Shaffery said the stray animal facility has revised its hold-time policy, extending the length of mandatory stay prior to adoption to five days, from three.

The five-day delay is the same amount of time Kentucky mandates a facility hold an animal prior to adoption.

Despite complications retrieving the dog, James Church said he was grateful for post leadership’s effort in bringing a happy ending to Riley’s story.

Source (see comment #32): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2548971/posts

Also see this article and comments, from before the dog was returned:
http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/cgi-bin/c2.cgi?053+article+News.Local+20100707104728053053003