Spalding, golden retriever

Missing St. Paul guide dog found by neighbor, reunited with owner
By Rhoda Fukushima and Tad Vezner, Pioneer Press
Updated: 12/13/2010 11:53:13 PM CST

A blind St. Paul man who lost his guide dog in the freezing cold Sunday — and spent that day and the next wrought with worry — was relieved to discover late Monday that the dog had spent the night in a warm kitchen across the street.

Service dog Spalding, a 22-month-old male golden retriever, disappeared Sunday in St. Paul s Merriam Park neighborhood.

About 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Justin McDevitt went to shovel snow in back of his house in the 1700 block of Marshall Avenue in the Merriam Park neighborhood. He believes Spalding, a 22-month-old male golden retriever, followed him outside: When McDevitt went inside an hour later, Spalding was not there.

McDevitt called for him, but the dog did not respond.

McDevitt immediately contacted the St. Paul location of the Animal Humane Society and the St. Paul Animal Control Center. His wife went outside to scour the neighborhood and alert neighbors.

Numerous media outlets picked up the story about the dog, who is McDevitt's fourth and had only been with him and his family a matter of weeks.

A resident about a block down saw one of those news reports Monday evening, and noticed the dog looked suspiciously like the one that a next-door neighbor had found at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, running around outside.

"He was just all by himself, and there were people at the other end of the block, so I thought he was with them," said neighbor Connie Murphy. "First I told him to go home, and he just looked at me. Then I called and he came running and just sat down. He was just the most awesome dog in the whole world."

Murphy, who has two dogs herself, walked the dog around the neighborhood on a leash, asking those shoveling their walks if they knew who his owner might be. Everyone shook their head.

"It was cold and getting colder. I took him in to get warmed up," Murphy said. First she kept the dog in a kennel, but let him out when she saw how well behaved he was. Spalding slept the night on her kitchen floor.

He was wearing a black and red nylon collar but no tags. Spalding normally wears tags, but they broke off last week when McDevitt mistakenly hooked the leash into the tag ring.

On Monday evening, Murphy heard from a neighbor that the dog might be McDevitt's, who lives across the street and two doors down. She turned on the television, saw a news report and called McDevitt's wife.

"I think I have your dog," she said.

"I'll be right over," the woman replied.

"She was — zoom — right there!" Murphy said.

Within minutes Spalding and McDevitt were reunited.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/ci_16850323?nclick_check=1
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