By Anna Mathews, © Carroll County News staff writer
Monday, February 2, 2004
GREEN FOREST ---- There was hardly a dry eye in the room when Abby, a sweet, smart and valuable AKC registered black lab, joyously reunited with her family after surviving seven long and lonely months on her own, miles and miles from the place she called home.
After seven months of futile searching, Scott and Kara Branton came to Green Forest, where they were finally united with their treasured black lab Abby. In the background, animal control officer Gay Lynn Easter cried with joy when reuniting Abby with her owners. It took the animal control officer considerable effort to catch the wily labrador, who had been staying alive by feeding on escaped chickens from Tyson Foods in Berryville.
Abby disappeared without a trace south of Berryville, and the well-trained dog used her wit and a little luck to survive on her own.
Her owners, Scott and Kara Branton were skeptical when they received a phone call on Tuesday reporting that Abby had surfaced.
Past disappointments had tempered their expectations. They refused to get their hopes up.
None-the-less, the couple made the drive from their home in Farmington to check out the report.
Seven months earlier, they had scoured the countryside south of Berryville, placed radio ads, distributed flyers and contacted animal shelters and veterinarians in the hope of finding Abby, their three-year-old AKC registered lab, a family pet who assisted Kara with her hearing impairment.
Abby had vanished while the couple were visiting Kara's parents, Marty and Darlene Strough, at the Strough home on Crystal Mountain.
"She was my first dog," recalled Scott. "I taught her to duck hunt. She picked up the hearing part on her own from being with Kara. If someone would knock on the door or if the phone would ring, Abby would let Kara know."
Scott said he had been home from work less than a hour on Tuesday when the phone rang. The cell phone connection was poor and Scott wasn't sure what he was hearing.
"I was a bit surprised," he recalled. "I didn't know why a dog pound would call. I didn't think it was about Abby and I didn't want to get excited until I actually saw her."
The call was from Gay Lynn Easter, the animal control officer for the cities of Green Forest and Berryville who reported that she had a lab she believed was theirs.
While waiting for the Branton's to make the hour drive over to Green Forest, Easter recalled how she came to be in possession of this friendly lab who was sprawled on the floor alongside her as the two shared a dish of ice cream together.
Easter said she had noticed the pooch living in an area behind the Tyson Foods processing plant, just outside of city limits.
"I presumed she lived with people in a nearby house because she had a collar and tags," Easter remembered.
She said she didn't think much about the dog until she started getting calls from the school reporting that the lab was on the football practice field or the playground.
"I started getting calls about her because she kept going to the school wanting to be near kids," Easter said. "I could never catch her and asked the Tyson guys if they could, but they said she wouldn't come near them either."
After repeated attempts to capture the pooch, Easter finally set up a live trap. On Tuesday, she had snagged the elusive lab. Once confined, the pooch was all tail wags and smiles.
Information on the tags attached to the collar indicated that the Cornerstone Animal Hospital in Fayetteville had administered the rabies vaccination.
Easter placed the call. After a brief conversation, she said the woman on the other end cried out incredulously, "You found Abby!"
"She was shocked and couldn't believe it," Easter recalled. "She said Abby had been missing for seven months and gave me the number of Abby's owners."
Easter placed a second call, this time reaching Scott. Both Scott and Kara immediately began their drive to Green Forest to see if their long lost Abby was really found.
"We thought she was stolen," Kara remembered. "We had checked with my mom's neighbors. We looked and looked and looked. We had reported her missing to all the vet clinics and shelters. We bought an ad on the radio and called animal control in three counties. Washington County had called me a few times with labs, but they were never Abby."
This time, the call really was about Abby.
Scott and Kara knew for sure as soon as they stepped through the door at city offices where Abby was waiting.
There was a moment's hesitation until Scott spoke the name "Abby."
With that, the beautiful black lab headed directly for his arms, licking, nuzzling, crooning, in his lap, in his arms, in his face, soon going between both Scott and Kara, in obvious enjoyment All who watched were wiping away tears.
"It's her," Scott said overjoyed.
Asked what he would do with Abby upon their return home, Scott was quick to respond.
"She'll get a bath first and then we'll introduce her to her new sister, Lucy, a lab that we got two months after Abby disappeared."
Scott also noted that he had just thrown out Abby's AKC papers while clearing out a room to make way for a new baby the couple is expecting.
He was surprised that Abby had survived so long outside, saying that she was an outside dog that spent a lot of time indoors being spoiled.
Easter speculated that Abby had survived by eating chickens that are known to escape from the Tyson plant.
"Oh, the stories she could tell," Easter said. "This has made my day. I think I'm as tickled as Abby. Her tags made all the difference. Otherwise, she would have gone to the pound."
Source: http://www.carrollconews.com/story/1386999.html
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