Darry, collie/golden retriever

Dog, owner reunited after 1 week
By Amy Schweitzer, WORLD-HEARLD NEWS SERVICE
Published Tuesday November 30, 2010


ALDA, NEB. — “Darry,” a collie/golden retriever, is safe at home in Colorado after wandering around Hall County for a week.

On Nov. 22, Monica Shields of Golden, Colo. was on her way to her hometown in Michigan when her vehicle rolled on black ice on Interstate 80 near the Wood River exit.

Shields, her friends and two other dogs had just bumps and bruises, but Darry escaped through a broken window.

“She was gone before we had even gotten out,” Shields said of the dog she had rescued from a shelter about eight months earlier.

For a week Shields and her friends looked for the dog.

“We went out for six hours (walking the fields near the crash site) before we were forced to go home,” she said.

Back in Colorado, Shields posted a plea with pictures on Facebook, ran ads in the Grand Island Independent and called to around to shelters.

Fred Schritt of Grand Island called here and said he would do everything in his power to find Darry.

“At first I thought, ‘Oh that’s nice, another well-wisher. Thank you.’ But then he called back to say he spent eight hours out walking, looking for her and hadn’t found her but he was going to keep looking.

“He was a total stranger but was willing to help,” she said.

Carol Matthews, who lives near Grand Island, also called to offer help. Matthews put up posters in Grand Island and Hastings.

Schritt said he saw the ad in Saturday’s paper.

“I just got a lump in my throat knowing how sad she had to be,” he said Monday. “I couldn’t sit here and not do anything.”

Schritt searched for two full days driving more than 100 miles each day and passing out cards to farmers offering a $1,000 reward for the recovery of the dog.

Towards the end of Sunday night, he saw a collie mix dog along the edge of I-80.

“My eyes were so tired, but I happened to look right and I saw a dog,” Schritt said.

He pulled over and tried to get the dog to come closer but he couldn’t get closer than 40 feet, Schritt said. Suddenly the dog bolted straight across the Interstate, thick with Thanksgiving traffic.

“My heart about stopped,” Schritt said, but Darry made it across without harm.

Even though the dog had escaped, Schritt called Shields to tell her that he had seen Darry and that he was going to try again Monday.

Early Monday morning Shields and a friend were on their way to Grand Island to help search when she received a call on her cell phone about 8 a.m. saying Darry had been found near Alda.

Zach Kramer was getting out of his Jeep at his parents’ farm about three miles northeast of Alda when a friendly dog came up and wanted to jump in his vehicle.

“She just started whining and wanted in my truck real bad,” he said with a laugh.

Kramer notice the dog’s pink collar and tags with an owner’s phone number and called Shields.

“We were all screaming in the car, going crazy,” Shields said with a laugh.

“If I lost my dog, I’d want someone to help,” Kramer said. “Everybody knew more than I did. I didn’t see any of the flyers or anything.”

Shields later thought maybe Darry went to Kramer because his vehicle is similar to hers.

After calling Shields, Kramer took the dog to Grand Island Veterinary Hospital where Dr. Jay Stewart cleaned up Darry for free.

“She was covered in stickers and muddy,” Kramer said.

The reunion between dog and owner at the Alda Interchange was what Schritt called “a storybook finish.”

He gave Kramer the $1,000 reward even though Kramer tried to refuse it.

Shields said she couldn’t believe so many people were willing to help find Darry.

“Living in Colorado, I have never met so many nice Nebraskans before,” Shields said. “I was blown away.”

Source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20101130/NEWS01/712019954/0

Diddy, yorkie

Diddy's Story
as told by Nancy Despeaux
February 27th 2011

Diddy is a happy go lucky 5 year old male yorkshire terrier and companion to Liz, who's in law school at Howard University in the very urban Washington DC. He's tiny, at 7-8 pounds, and extremely friendly. He's a great dog!

Liz, sharing the great news for the ????th time!

Wish though she might that she could really take him every last place she goes, Liz had to leave him behind when she has an out of town trip to make in February 2011. A friend cared for him while she was gone, in his home accross town. Diddy knew the friend from his visits to their house, so it was a good solution.

All week long, the friend walked Diddy, but off leash, which was of course against the rules. However, good dog that Diddy is, he didn't run off. Until Saturday, the day Liz returned home. She got the call from the friend as she was boarding the plane. We can only imagine how awful that plane ride was.

Liz's mom, Cee, lives in New York, and they are very close. Actually, Diddy and Cee's dog Karma are litter mates. While Diddy was missing, Cee was miserable stuck at home in New York when she wanted to be boots on the ground in DC, helping Liz search for Diddy.

But speaking from the perspective of someone that has participated in many lost dog searches, Cee stands almost alone in what a rock she was, more helpful and supportive she was in the search that I've almost ever seen. Perhaps it is because if people have a lot of support, they don't contact me for help, but I almost never see anyone going through what Liz went through that has anyone like Cee in their lives, doing all that Cee did to try to circulate the word of who to call if a dog matching Diddy's description was to be found.

On the seventh day of agony came the ecstacy for Liz, and Cee. I would say for Diddy too, but he was far from agonized -- at least in the time after his "run-about" came to an end several hours after he vanished!

It seems that he had scampered about 5 miles from where he bolted, in about 3-4 hours. He was in traffic, risking his life, when his rescuer encountered him, and offered him an open door to climb through. It seemed like a good idea to Diddy; he loves car rides!

After first taking him to her house, where she already has 4 dogs of her own, she took Diddy to her mom's house. All week long he was doted on and loved, with assorted purchases made for him, and he was as well behaved and happy as ever.

And that was the total giveaway. His rescuer could plainly see that it was impossible that no one was looking for this wonderful dog. Much as she would have loved to have a dog exactly like him, she knew what she would have wanted had someone found her own dog. She tried the shelter several times -- not leaving him there, but as soon as Tueseday, notifying them of this found dog she had, with a full description. And then finally, on Friday, six days after he hit the streets and made his way to her house, she tried again, and apparently was insistent that someone MUST be looking for this dog.

Presumably at her urging, the shelter person made a phone call to this person, Liz, who had lost her yorkie the previous Saturday afternoon, to tell her about the dog found and being held by a citizen. It was the call that Liz had hoped and prayed for all week!

Liz of course flew to that house as fast as she could. Cee and Karma were already en route to DC; Cee hadn't been able stand another minute of not being by Liz's side. How nice for Cee that she got to drive straight to the house and be greeted by none other than Diddy himself!

Everyone enjoyed a beautiful reunion visit. But you know how dogs are -- Diddy didn't even look back at his wonderful temporary home and family when Liz walked out the door to go home!

A blog was set up for the search for Diddy, and you can read Cee's version of the story there:       http://pleasefinddiddy.blogspot.com/

Turbo, doberman

Couple alerted by dolphins about tired dog tells story
By Paul Gessler
Feb 25, 2011

MARCO ISLAND: The story of Turbo, the Doberman who was saved by dolphins, has picked up national attention. Friday, the couple who heard the dolphins and jumped in the water to pull Turbo from the canal spoke out.

It's believed that the determined Doberman spent 15 hours in the canal. And the Dalessandros are part of the reason he survived.

"I think he was probably in the water probably much of the night," said Audrey Dalessandro.

"The dog was exhausted," added Sam Dalessandro.

Sam said on Monday morning, he was loading up his boat when he heard the dolphins.

"They were really putting up a raucous, almost beaching themselves on the sandbar over there," he said. "If it wasn't for the dolphin, I would have never seen the dog."

He called 9-1-1 as his wife got the ladder.

"When I got down into the water, the dog came right over to me and stayed by my leg the whole time," Audrey said.

Firefighters arrived and helped lift him out of the cold water.

"When we finally got the dog up on shore, the dog just laid down. The dog was exhausted," Sam said.

Minutes later, he was reunited with mom Cindy Burnett.

"The lady said, 'No, the dolphin saved him,'" Burnett described.

But by then, the dolphin had left.

"If it wasn't for that dolphin, that dog would be in doggie heaven right now because we would have never seen it," Sam said.




Source: http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=14145484
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Faith, siberian husky

Search For New Pet Leads To Long-Lost Dog
Gardner Woman Reunited With Faith, Dog She Thought She's Never See Again
DeAnn Smith, KMBC.com
October 13, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Dana Klint was casually perusing the online pages at Pet Connection on Saturday looking for a buddy for her playful Siberian husky.

Faith and Dana's reunion

Then she stopped. It seemed impossible. The face of her beloved dog, Faith, that she hadn't seen in more than two years because of a dispute with an ex-boyfriend was staring back at her.

"I glanced at the picture of Faith and thought, 'Wow, that looks like my dog!' I looked at it closer and my heart just stopped. I knew that was my dog," Klint said. "I had left it where I would never see her again. I just had to let it go, but it hurt so bad."

Klint's journey with the 15-year-old Faith started in 2000 when she lived in West Palm Beach, Fla. Faith followed Klint's son home from school. Faith had a tag and she called the vet's office who gave her the contact information for the owner of the Siberian husky mix.

"She was the most wonderful dog. She had manners. She was so good," Klint recalled Tuesday.

Faith's owner came and picked her up. But the dog kept following Klint's son, who is now 20 years old. After the fourth time of following her son home, Faith's owner wouldn't come get her, and Klint had a new dog.

Klint got a second dog, Maggie, an old English bulldog in 2003. She and her then-boyfriend moved to the Kansas City area. In 2006, they broke up. Klint thought it was an amicable breakup.

"I didn't have a place to keep Faith and Maggie so I asked him to keep them temporarily," she said. "Six months later, I wanted them back. He wouldn't give them back."

The dispute turned nasty enough that the police got involved. But Klint had nothing in writing to show the arrangement was temporary so she had no recourse.

She said she got to see Faith and Maggie every six months, but then two years ago her boyfriend ordered her away and never to return.

"I had no reason to believe they were in danger. He loved the dogs too. He treated the dogs better than he treated me," Klint said. "I just accepted that I didn't have my dogs anymore."

In the meantime, Klint got married and had two children now ages 2 years old and 1 years old. They settled into a home in Gardner. They got their rambunctious Siberian husky named Freyja, who they decided needed a puppy or cat to play with.

Three weeks ago, a good Samaritan came across Faith, which the Pet Connection named Medora. She was out on the streets of Kansas City, Kan., and emaciated. She was covered in sores and hip dysplasia meant she was dragging herself around by her front legs. She is partially blind and her hearing is bad. She was eating out of gutters to survive and the shelter estimates she has been living on the streets for at least six months.

Two years ago, the dog would have been likely put down because of her age and condition, said the Pet Connection's Melody Kelso. But the Ray of Hope program with the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City means the no-kill shelter can accept special animals like Faith.

And that led to the Pet Connection putting the dog's picture up on their website for adoption. They are encouraging people to consider adopting older dogs, which Klint now wholeheartedly supports.

"I was looking for a buddy for my Siberian husky. I wasn't looking for a 15-year-old dog," Klint said.

Initially, Klint hoped it wasn't Faith's picture staring back at her.

"I didn't want my dog to go through that, knowing she went through a horrible ordeal. It was heart breaking," Klint said. "I just dropped everything and ran down there."

And she knew immediately Saturday afternoon that Medora was really a dog named Faith. She said the way Faith responded to her, the spot on her tongue and the way her toenails looked were giveaways to her.

"I sat down on the floor and was hugging her. She leaned on me and I started crying. I couldn't believe it," Klint said. "I thought, 'This is a miracle.' She is really like a child to me."

She theorizes that Faith ran away from her ex-boyfriend's because his backyard was unfenced and the dog clearly likes to roam. She said it's heart breaking not knowing what has happened to Maggie.

But Klint wasn't ready to take Faith home Saturday afternoon. She said she needed to get the house ready and buy the proper supplies. Klint said it nearly broke her heart to leave Faith Saturday afternoon and the dog didn't want to return to her place in the shelter.

But Sunday, Klint returned to claim Faith permanently.

"I was so nervous that something would happen and I wouldn't get her back. I am just elated. I am so happy," Klint said.

She said Faith has quickly settled into her new home and Freyja treats Faith like she's her mother. Faith does use her back legs as a rudder and pushes herself around with her front legs.

While walking Faith outside, Klint has had to stop her from foraging the gutters for food.

"I told her, 'Honey, you aren't a gutter girl anymore,'" Klint said. "I found her as a stray twice in two different states. It's meant to be. She's my girl. I am giving her the best care possible. I am going to make sure she spends the rest of her life as the spoiled princess that she's meant to be."


Images (slide show): Old Dog Faith Returns To Old Home

Source: http://www.kmbc.com/r/25366842/detail.html

Ella, chihuahua mix

Lost dog found after a month
Owners spot pup in place they lost her
Kristen Duwe/Times Record News
Friday, February 18, 2011

It was miraculous timing and the unmatched loyalty of man's best friend that allowed Lanham Lyne and his wife to find their family dog in the exact place they last saw her one month earlier.

Lyne, former mayor of Wichita Falls and current Republican member of the Texas Legislature, and the two family dogs, Ella and Nash, were making their way back to Wichita Falls from Austin about 9 p.m. Jan. 19. Lyne pulled into a rest area between Stephenville and Hico to give the dogs some time to stretch their legs, drink some water and "do their thing," he said.

A few minutes later, Ella and Nash took off running to explore a nearby creek bed. Lyne was able to retrieve Nash, but Ella, a Chihuahua and terrier mix, was nowhere in sight.

"We don't know if something caught her eye or what," said Lyne's wife, Sharla.

Lyne searched the area for more than an hour and called his wife to break the news. She immediately made the journey to the rest area and arrived around 1:30 a.m. They stayed all night at the rest area in hopes of seeing Ella.

Realizing the first winter storm was about to bring ice and snow accumulation, Sharla Lyne spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon searching, talking to nearby residents, placing newspaper ads and contacting the Humane Society. When the sun started going down, she headed home.

"I knew I had to leave and come back home before it got dark," she said. "I cried all the way from Stephenville to Wichita Falls."

Over the following weeks, Lanham and his wife repeatedly stopped at the rest area, hoping for a glimpse of Ella. As the second winter storm blew through and wind chills dropped into single-digits, hope for a reunion faded.

Sharla tried to maintain faith that Ella was with caring people who took her in, fearing what the alternatives were, she said.

"There was a lot of crying and mourning and grieving," Lanham Lyne said. "We gave up hope on ever finding her."

As Sharla was on her way to Austin on Monday, 26 days after Ella went missing, she started saying a prayer as she approached the same rest area.

"I wasn't ready to give up yet," she said.

A black object caught her eye. That "object" was Ella, sitting on the other side of a fence which surrounds the rest area.

"She never moved," Sharla said. "She sat there looking at me."

Not wanting to scare Ella off, Sharla inched closer to her and called her name. She was greeted by a wagging tail. Sharla tried to find an opening to the fence, but Ella laid down and cried each time she tried to walk away. Sharla then simply began digging under the fence, pulling up grass and dirt until Ella was able to crawl under it.

"The dog was a little bit confused about where she was but she knew the voice," Lanham said.

"I felt like I was in a movie," Sharla said. "She jumped in my arms and that's pretty much where she stayed for a while," Sharla said.

Lanham and Sharla Lyne still cannot believe how a small dog survived on its own in such cold temperatures.

"She's real skinny, but other than that, she's in good health and survived these two extreme cold spells. I don't know how," Lanham said.

Ella was always an inside pet and "I don't know how she survived the zero degree temperatures that we had," Sharla said.

After being home for a few days, Ella is still trying to adjust.

"Other than being really weak and thin, she appears to be OK," Sharla said. "She's getting a little stronger everyday."

Ella is still a "little skittish, which is to be understood," Lanham said.

Lanham and Sharla find it hard to think of the situation as anything less than a miracle.

"It was a godsend," Sharla said. "There's just no other way you can look at it."

"I'm still on a cloud," Lanham said. "It's just great"

"She was sitting at the fence at the exact time I showed up," Sharla said. "It's just one of those given miracles in life."


Source:  http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2011/feb/18/lost-dog-found-after-a-month/?partner=yahoo_feeds
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Nevada, black lab

YC dog found alive month later in Roseville
By Nancy Pasternack/Appeal-Democrat
2011-01-15 00:31:46

She hadn't turned up at a local animal shelter, or been spotted during neighborhood searches, or found dead on a highway.

Nevada, a seven-year-old black lab was reunited with the Poland family after being missing from Dec. 9 to Jan. 8. Savannah, 9, from left, Bailee, 13, Melissa, Samantha, 8, and Cody, 15. Cody is holding Miley. Photo taken Friday, Jan. 14, 2011, at the Poland's Yuba City home.

Nevada, a 7-year-old, gray-muzzled, black Labrador retriever, had wandered from the southwest Yuba City yard of her owners — a family with four kids — and had not been home in four weeks.

"She doesn't like to be away from us," said Melissa Poland, who, along with her husband, exhausted themselves searching and worrying, and eventually, resigning themselves to the likely fact that she was lost forever.

Meanwhile, in northwest Roseville, animal control officers had been frustrated in their attempts to trap a shy, graying black Lab that had been spotted by a driver on Dec 9 — a mere three hours after Melissa Poland first began to get the word out that her dog was missing.

On Friday, a skinny, freshly bathed Nevada relaxed in her Yuba City living room, surrounded by her favorite pack of humans.

Her constant canine companion, Miley the Chihuahua, nuzzled her and settled in nearby.

The mystery of how Nevada wound up in Roseville, and the gratitude over her return still is overwhelming for the family, said Melissa Poland.

"I think she got in the back of somebody's truck," said Samantha Poland, 8, who, like everyone else in the family, has considered a number of scenarios to try and resolve the question that is unlikely to find resolution.

One of Samantha's sisters suggested someone might have taken Nevada deliberately.

During the dog's absence, the parents tried to convince them — and themselves — that someone had simply fallen in love with Nevada and had taken her to a new, loving home.

Miley "was very sad and depressed," in Nevada's absence, Poland said. "She hid under the kitchen table. She didn't want to go out. She had been Nevada's shadow."

Her 15-year-old son, she said, was devastated.

He had received Nevada as a puppy to keep him company after difficult surgeries related to his cerebral palsy.

"Cody was the most upset of all," said his mother.

But three weeks after Nevada left home, the situation seemed hopeless. The family's search for her, after all, had been epic.

They had posted photos and descriptions and checked Craigslist and Petharbor.com., scoured all nearby neighborhoods almost obsessively, and checked local animal control.

Melissa Poland also called the office of the veterinarian where Nevada had first been microchipped to provide an updated address and telephone number.

In the end, it was one stranger's determination to find Nevada's owner that got her home safely.

On Jan. 7 — four weeks to the day since she left home — the dog was successfully trapped.

Hungry and exhausted, she had finally given in to the temptation of food in a baited cage.

Though the dog was no longer wearing her collar, Roseville Animal Control Officer Laura Morin knew she had a home, according to Melissa Poland.

She checked the frightened animal for a microchip — a move that met with success and relief.

But a call to the Yuba-Sutter Veterinary Hospital, where Poland had recently updated her dog's address, produced nothing of value.

"They told Laura that the dog had been chipped there, but that they had no idea where the owners could be located," Poland said.

Undaunted, Morin scoured the Internet for a match, and that did the trick, Poland said.

"She kept Nevada with her the whole time. She even fed her KFC for lunch," Poland said.

The family had been at a birthday party in Lincoln when they got the call.

Skepticism led to joy when they arrived at the Roseville Police Department and saw their long lost dog.

"We were shocked that she survived," said Poland. "She's spent her life indoors, and she's such a home body."

There were smiles all around on Friday, one day after Nevada finally seemed caught up on sleep and showed a hearty appetite.

"She's the dog with nine lives," Poland joked. "If only she could talk."

Source: http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/gray-103107-southwest-animal.html
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Angus, labrador retriever

Angus is reunited with his owners after two years
Thursday 18th November 2010, 11:30AM GMT.

Alice Hunt with Angus

A family from Willenhall have been reunited with its beloved pet – more than two years after thieves ransacked the home and stole it.

Carol Hunt returned home in August 2008 to discover thieves had broken in and stolen the family’s Labradors Angus and Rosie.

After 27 months without news, the family were resigned to never seeing the pair again and decided to get themselves another dog.

But just a day after picking up blonde Labrador Gem from All Seasons Kennel, Essington, they received the call they thought would never come.

Caravan Vets, from Willenhall, called to say Angus had been taken in by his new owners, who wanted a microchip installed. His original chip was found and the Hunt family traced.

Mother-of-four Mrs Hunt, aged 40, from Birch Coppice Gardens, said: “I was so shocked.

“As soon as I laid eyes on Angus I burst into tears. I had given up hope of ever seeing him again, we had kept all of their toys and bowls until eight months ago when we realised they wouldn’t be coming back.

“It was a mixed reaction because Angus’ new owners were devastated and I felt so sorry for them.

“My family is delighted, my husband John even drove all the way back from work as a site manager in London to come and see Angus.”

In 2008 when the dogs were reported stolen Carol’s daughter Alice, who was just three-years-old at the time and is now six, was pictured in an Express & Star appeal.

Only a month later Angus ended up at kennels where an unsuspecting family saw him and decided to take him in as their own.

Rachel Porter, practice manager at Cavan Vets, said: “It was great to reunite the family with their missing dog but it was upsetting because of how sad the new owners were by having to give up their dog after two years.”

Source: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2010/11/18/angus-is-reunited-with-his-owners-after-two-years/

Bear, Patterdale terrier

A mystery, a microchip and a dog named Bear
STEVE MAYNARD
Last updated: February 19th, 2011

A dog that somehow wound up in Lakewood – 715 miles from his home near Sacramento – will be reunited with his owner Saturday.


California construction worker Bryan Rapozo drove all the way from Woodland Ca. (near Sacramento) and arrived in the Tacoma area around 1am Saturday morning before being reunited with his beloved "Bear Bear," a rat terrier mix Saturday morning at the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County Saturday, February 19, 2011. The father of two girls says Bear is his only boy and goes with everywhere with him. "I'm just happy to have him back" said Rapozo who added he's going to learn to go with me on my Harley because I'm not leaving him home alone anymore.

Hours after Bryan Rapozo's two-year-old Patterdale terrier went missing Tuesday, the heartbroken owner doubted he'd ever see his beloved Bear again.

"I figured that was it," Rapozo said. "I didn't think I'd ever get him back."

A woman who didn't identify herself turned in the 20-pound dog Thursday to the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County, saying she found him roaming in Lakewood.

Because Bear had been injected with a microchip, the Humane Society was able to get a message to Rapozo that the dog had been found and was safe in Tacoma.

"It was the best news I've ever heard," Rapozo said today.

"He's like my son," said the 32-year-old father of two daughters. "I just want my boy back."

Rapozo started the 13-hour drive up from Sacramento on Friday to pick up Bear Saturday. When he sees him, "I'll probably start crying."

Bear was sitting outside the office of the acoustical ceiling company where Rapozo works when he disappeared Tuesday afternoon.

"He sits out back waiting for a squirrel that's been bothering him," said Rapozo, who lives in Rio Linda near Sacramento.

How Bear ventured all the way to Lakewood remains a mystery.

"I think somebody took him and he got away," Rapozo said. "He doesn't stray. He doesn't go anywhere without me."

When Bear was turned in, he didn't have the new collar and identification tag that Rapozo had put on him Sunday. The tag included Rapozo's name and cell phone number, and the dog's name as well.

But Bear did have a microchip.

Humane Society officials scanned it for its identification code, contacted the microchip company and called the veterinary clinic that had injected the device. Then they left a message with Rapozo's ex-wife, whose contact information was listed with the clinic, said Marguerite Richmond, development director at the Humane Society.

Tammi Rapozo in Rio Linda called her ex-husband, and Rapozo called his dog's caretakers in Tacoma.

"I was excited that somebody found him, that I knew he was safe," Rapozo said.

In her 16 years at the Humane Society, Richmond said she's never known of a dog wandering so far.

"I think it's extremely unusual," Richmond said. "He didn't walk up here. He didn't get here by himself."

Bear was in fine condition when turned in.

"He's very happy," Richmond said. "He just wants to jump in your lap and kiss your face."

Richmond said the happy ending shows it's a good idea to have your pet microchipped, which costs $25 at the Humane Society. Rapozo said Bear will no longer be going outside alone. He said he's putting his dog on "lockdown" when he gets him back. "He's not going to leave my side," Rapozo said.

Source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/02/18/1550798/dog-found-roaming-in-lakewood.html#
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Watch the video at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/dogs-epic-journey-12959228
Another version of the story is at http://www.komonews.com/news/local/116543968.html

Naomi, husky

UPDATE: Local Woman Reunited With Lost Dog
Reporter: Chris  Frank, KAKE

After seeing the story on KAKE, an El Dorado man has decided to give back the dog he adopted from the Wichita animal shelter as its rightful owner arrived to pick it up.

Naomi the Siberian Husky was reunited with Kellyn Johnson after the man who adopted the dog saw Chris Frank's story Thursday evening. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, called the KAKE Newsroom shortly after the story aired. Reporter Frank put the two in contact with each other and they agreed to meet in order to get the dog back to it's rightful owner.

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Chris Frank's original story:

A local dog owner says that after searching for her missing Husky for two months, she finally located it at the Wichita Animal Shelter, but it was too late.

The Husky,named Naomi, escaped from Kellyn Johnson's back yard two months ago. Johnson and her friends had just shaved the dog because of the heat at the time. Because of that, Naomi didn't have her collar and tags on, further complicating the search.

"I looked at Craigslist every day," Johnson said.

It was, in fact, a notice on Craigslist's lost-and-found section which alerted Johnson that Naomi was at the Wichita Animal Shelter after officers picked her up last week.

She checked the shelter's website of pet photos and determined that it was her dog.

This was Friday evening and the shelter was closed. Johnson was scheduled to run in a regional cross country meet for the WSU Shockers the next day in Oklahoma, so she had her friend Heath go in her place.

He took a copy of a photo to show the shelter's staff that it was Naomi.

"As I handed the picture of Naomi to the woman at the front desk, I saw Naomi being led out of the back hall by a gentleman on a leash," Heath said.

Instead of Naomi being led to Heath, it was being adopted to an El Dorado man.

"She runs up to me and I'm petting Naomi a little bit. And I didn't really know what to think. Then he says he'd just adopted the dog," Heath said.

Heath says the man had no interest in reasoning with him or looking at the photo. Shelter staff said they couldn't stop the adoption.

"Once legal ownership had been established after the three day holding period, the city could not make the new owner turn the dog back over to its original owner," said Don Henry, City of Wichita Environmental Services Manager.

"It just didn't make any sense to me. I didn't see how somebody could be so heartless that they could just take somebody else's dog. Somebody standing right there ready to claim the dog and they could just take it," Johnson said.

The El Dorado man refuses to budge and Johnson is considering legal action.

For positive pet identification, the City of Wichita advises having a microchip inserted in your pet or having it tattooed.

Meanwhile, Johnson can only hope the El Dorado family with the new husky will have a change of heart.
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Source: http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/34842584.html?storySection=story

Lucy In South Carolina

Lost dog after 3 weeks reunited
Nancy White, shared on MyPetSpace
June 9, 2009

Hi All, I have a very warm & fuzzy story to share. It is also in my local paper {the Herald Independent in Winnsboro, SC 29180}

Three weeks ago there was a lady and her husband traveling, and they stopped at exit 48 on I-77 only to realize their dog was not in her kennel in the back of the truck bed. Not sure where they lost her, they looked for her at the exit 48, and nothing. Both very upset, they had to continue on their trip to a bible concert.

Well, not 20 minutes after they left, a Fairfield County sheriff officer found this sweet & lovable dog. Instead of bringing her to our local "kill" shelter, they brought this dog to my grooming & boarding shop in Winnsboro about 1/2 hour away from where she was found.

I said sure, I would take her in and try to find her owners with fliers, ads etc . Well, I posted mostly in OH as I was told that is where her family was traveling from.... I put it on the Pet FBI list and Craigslist in OH; she was broadcasted on OH radio station and still nothing. I posted her on Lost & Found and Pets on Craigslist in OH, Charlotte and in Columbia, SC. I put up fliers where she was found and nothing............

Three weeks later, I said, “OK girl, I tried, and now let’s find you a new home.” So I posted on Craigslist "Where R U" and "Lost dog in need of new family". I did this on a Friday and I got so many replies... I answered all of them, and a lady came into my shop and she said "Nancy, I would like a larger older dog, do you have one?" I replied "Yes" and she then said, “Well, could you hold her for me until Monday?” I said yes.

Well, Monday came and I never saw nor heard from this lady. I wrote everyone back who wanted her, to tell them I had a lady coming for her on Monday but that she was a no show....

But there was a reason GOD sent this lady into my shop, and "Lucy" was going to be reunited with her family again!

Yep, I placed one more ad and this time I wrote "Are you out there?" and put it on Craigslist again in Charlotte and Columbia, under Lost & Found and also under Pets..... Not 20 minutes later I received an email from a man saying......."My daughter-in-law & son lost their dog, and she looks just like this girl. Please hold her until I call them to confirm." I wrote back as fast as I could with excitement and tears of joy... OK

Well, the phone rang and it was "Lucy's" mom ... now she even had a name. Wow, I thought, GOD sent that older lady into my shop to hold onto Lucy because I was going to find her owners and SOON!

They drove up no sooner then we hung up and three hours later saw Lucy again for the first time in almost one month.

They have since called to tell me she is going to Tennessee to see her dad. He travels with his job and this was his dog ... He called me and said he cried as he looked at her picture every night on his cell phone.

And NO she was not microchipped....... that was the first thing I checked... so please get your dogs chipped!

It was a great story, and to this day I cannot believe I got her back to her family.... how cool was that!

I had fliers up at the Wilco gas station and they had fliers up at the Shell station........... right across the street on exit 48.

Nancy White
Pet Shack Of Northside

Source: http://www.mydogspace.com/forums/10-media/topics/1734-lost-dog-after-3-weeks-reunited

Titan, great dane

Dog reunited with Ashland family after dramatic rescue
Titan survived days of cold weather before the persistence of his worried owners finally paid off
By Sanne Specht for the Tidings
January 21, 2011

Titan and his owner, Merri Walters-Woo, share a moment together Wednesday in their Ashland home after Titan was rescued from a muddy ravine in Portland.

Titan the Great Dane is soaking up all the love Merri Walters-Woo has to offer while he recovers from a real-life cliffhanger.

Walters-Woo, 44, of Ashland, had nearly lost faith that the 4-year-old dog would be found alive after he ran away from her brother's Portland area home on Dec. 29.

While outside on a potty break, Titan suddenly bolted into the night, chasing after a passing car he likely mistook for Walters-Woo's vehicle, she said.

"He was doing really great," she said. "Then a car drove by that looked exactly like mine and he just took off. My brother felt so terrible."

A flurry of "Lost Dog" fliers, Craigslist postings and offers of a $1,000 reward had alerted the dog-friendly Vancouver Lake neighborhood to keep a sharp eye out for Titan. The next night there was a reported sighting in a nearby park. But Titan was not to be found.

"How can you miss a Great Dane?" Walters-Woo said.

As the days turned into weeks, Walters-Woo and her husband continued to drive to Portland to join Andy Walters and his fiancée, Amanda Giese, as they searched ravines, parks and along railroad tracks. But there were no further sightings.

Meanwhile, Portland was experiencing the worst weather possible, she said.

"It snowed, it rained, it was freezing," Walters-Woo said. "He's not an independent type of dog. He's super clingy. He wants to be in the house 24/7."

By Jan. 14, the harlequin Dane had been missing for 16 days.

"I thought for sure Titan was dead," she said. "I sat and prayed. He may not come back."

Then the phone rang. Titan was alive. But just barely.

"He was in really, really bad shape," Walters-Woo said. "My brother warned me he might not make it."

Rachel Gissel and her young children were spending Friday afternoon looking for frogs at a nearby pond when they spotted a dog stranded on a ledge 50 feet down a muddy ravine. Gissel immediately recognized Titan from the fliers. She called Walters. He and Giese raced to the rescue, Walters-Woo said.

It was Giese, 28, who scrambled down the vertical face of the washed-out ravine.

Sliding down blackberry bushes, grasping for handholds, Giese traversed the landslides and crawled over muddy debris to reach Titan.

"He was really excited to see me," Giese said. "I said, 'Are you ready to go home? Let's go!' "

But getting Titan out of the ravine was not going to be easy. Starvation and dehydration had taken their toll. Titan had lost 50 pounds off his normally 150-pound frame. The dog also had seriously injured his front leg.

"I thought the infection had gone to the bone. I thought for sure, if we could even get him out of there, if he survived, he'd lose the leg," she said.

Giese barely weighs 100 pounds herself. But she was the only one the frightened dog would allow near him.

"He likes two people, Merri and me. I told (everyone else) to stand back," Giese said, adding Titan was biting and snapping at others' rescue attempts.

Standing precariously on a rotten stump, Giese quickly realized an outcropping over the area where Titan was trapped meant she had to persuade the dog to take a literal and lateral leap of faith.

"One leap was what I really needed," Giese said, as she continued to coax the dog.

"I finally said 'Titan! You need to jump to me now!' "

Titan jumped, and landed on Giese's legs, then crawled up onto her body. From that point on, the pair endured a gut-busting scramble to the top of the embankment. Giese would push the dog ahead of her, drag him behind her, whatever it took to gain ground, she said.

"Every step I took, I'd step and slide backwards," Giese said.

When they finally popped over the edge, Giese's adrenaline was so kicked in she simply picked Titan up and carried him to the car. The dog's feet were almost dragging on the ground, she said.

"He's so big. And I'm not. I don't know how I did it, really. I just knew that when he took that leap there was no way I was going to leave him behind in that ravine," Giese said.

Portland veterinarians examined Titan and determined that while he was emaciated and suffering from a serious leg infection and other lesser injuries, the dog had no broken bones, Walters-Woo said.

"When I first saw my brother, I just cried," she said. "But I felt such relief knowing Titan wasn't going to die out there by himself."

Life has never been easy for Titan. He was the last of his litter to be adopted, his four-legged mother rejected him after biting a hole in his ear, and he was isolated in a pen until he was adopted by Walters-Woo at 5 months old. At the time he had a cut on his eye, staples in his ears and his tail had been docked, she said.

"He was always an accident-proned little guy," Walters-Woo said.

Walters-Woo was able to bring Titan home Monday from DoveLewis, a nonprofit emergency veterinary clinic in Portland. There may be surgeries in his future, depending on how well his leg heals. But for now their days will revolve around wound care, doses of medicine — and lots and lots of snuggling.

"His recovery is going to be long," Walters-Woo said. "His wound is seven inches long and three inches wide."

Gissel, the frog-hunting woman who found Titan, refused to accept the $1,000 reward, Walters-Woo said.

"She said to put it toward Titan's medical bills," Walters-Woo said. "I am so grateful to her, and to Amanda, and to everyone. It's really a miracle. I am so blessed."

Source: http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110121/NEWS02/101210307
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Mazi, boxer

Burkhardt Couple Reunited With Lost Dog After Eight-Day Search
By Micheal Foley
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
 
Mazi, a two-year-old female boxer, spent more than a week outdoors in frigid winter air without food or water.

Owners Shaina Johannsen and Charlie Beer stopped by the Hillcrest Animal Hospital on Thursday, Feb. 10, to spend some time with Mazi. They were able to take her home the following day.

Thanks to the help of family, friends, neighbors, concerned community members and an anonymous donor, a Burkhardt couple has been reunited with their 2-year-old boxer dog named Mazi.

Mazi ran away from the couple's home the evening of Monday, Jan. 31. Owners Shaina Johannsen and Charlie Beer immediately started a search. Johannsen was babysitting at the time and couldn't leave, so she called Beer who left work in Bloomington, MN, to start the search.

On his way home, Beer called his parents. Beer's father, who was out snowmobiling at the time called his brother and the search was on. Beer's mother and brother were quickly enlisted, as well as a few neighbors.

One of the searchers spotted Mazi's tracks leading to County Road A, but falling snow made further tracking impossible that night.

"We did as much as we could that night," Beer said. "We searched until about 10:30 that night and didn't find any more traces."

Beer took off of work the next day to dedicate his time to finding Mazi.

"I went door-to-door in the neighborhood to ask if anybody had seen her," Beer said. "On that day we put signs up on the stop signs and took signs to some of the local businesses. I called the vets and the humane society and filed a missing dog report with them."

One of the people they contacted was Brenda Daubenspeck. Also a boxer owner, Daubenspeck took the search to the Internet. She posted pictures of Mazi on every missing animal website and local forum she could find, including Craigslist and the Hudson Patch Facebook page. Beer also regularly monitored Craigslist in case anyone was trying to sell the dog.

"By the third day I was starting to think she was stolen," Beer said. "The snow was so deep around here that she didn't have that many places to go."

Meanwhile, the temperature was dropping and Johannsen was getting worried.

"She's our life, like our child," Johannsen said. "Every day I would break down. Every day that went by you just lose that much more hope. It didn't feel right to do anything without her. You don't realize how much of your life involves a dog until it's not there anymore."

Online forums advised the couple to have strong-smelling food outside along with clothes they had worn in case Mazi picked up the scent and wandered back home.

At about 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb 8, the couple got word from Pam Hofer, who lived about a half mile away, heard a dog crying in the woods earlier that day. When Hofer ventured into the woods to check, the animal stopped making noise.

At about 5:30, when Hofer's neighbor Michelle Schoeder heard the story, she called her daughter Emily Pelton and told her to take the family's golden retriever Bennie into the woods to look for a whimpering dog—but Emily and Bennie didn't find the dog.

After another failed attempt an hour later, the search party had grown. Michelle's husband Steve, and their neighbor Nancy Martel joined Pam and Emily for another search. This time they looked under trees and bushes and found Mazi curled up in an icy bed she had made for herself.

Mazi wasn't receptive to Steve handling her, so Emily put her coat over the dog and laid down next to her to warm her with her body heat while Pam called the owners.

After the discovery, it became obvious that Mazi was in desperate need of medical care. She had painful sores on her hind legs, broken teeth and, most noticeably, she had lost quite a bit of weight.

"She lost 11 pounds, and she only weighed 55 to begin with," Beer said. "She was very dehydrated and very hungry."

The couple brought her to the Animal Emergency Clinic in Oakdale, MN, where Dr. Jeff Bush cared for the ailing pooch.

"They said she looked pretty good given the situation; they started her immediately on fluids and tried to get some food in her," Beer said. "They were really worried about the sores on her back legs. They thought it might have been frostbite. After checking her out they said it wasn't frostbite, but a sore, like a bed sore, from laying on the ice, or she got hit by something."

In addition, Mazi had two broken teeth that were embedded in her gums.

When checking out of the Animal Emergency Clinic, the couple was informed that $500 of their vet bill was paid for by an anonymous donor. Mazi spent the next day and night at the couple's local vet Hillcrest Animal Hospital in Hudson under the care of Dr. Chris Cole.

Charlie and Shaina brought Mazi home on Friday, Feb. 11, a week and a half after she ran away.

"We just really want to stress how thankful we are for everybody who supported us through this and helped with the search," Johannsen said. "We are so thankful for what Pam, Michelle, Steve, Emily, and Nancy did for us. Also, we are so appreciative of the $500 donation. There are some great people out there."

Source: http://hudson-wi.patch.com/articles/burkhardt-couple-reunited-with-lost-dog-after-eight-day-search

Sally, cocker spaniel

Dog reunited with owner thanks to Twitter
By Jessica Thompson
Jan 14 2011

Sally, a missing Cocker Spaniel, has been found thanks to Twitter

A dog who went missing in Feltham has been found 30 miles away after a Twitter campaign snowballed.

Sally, a 10 year old female Cocker Spaniel, went missing on Tuesday night when she was walked by a family friend in Feltham Park.

Robyn Trainer launched the on-line appeal after hearing of the "distressing" news about the much loved animal. The pet belongs to her mother in law who had left the Sally with family while holidaying in Australia.

The pet in peril was found today, just 24 hours after her owner touched down at Heathrow airport to learn she had gone missing.

Speaking yesterday, Mrs Trainer, said: "We are quite distressed. We have let as many people know locally as we can including the council. It's horrible not knowing if she is ok or not.

"I turned to Twitter because I have to do everything I can. Yesterday 70 to 80 people had re-tweeted it, people I don't even know. The support has been overwhelming".

But it was good news when she Tweeted this afternoon to announce that the pet had been found.

Source:  http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/hounslowchron/jan2011/7/0/twitter-88120934.jpg

Mack, pitbull

Big Mack Attack
Kat Albrecht's Pet Detective Blog
February 13, 2011

When most people hear the word “attack” in the same sentence as the word “pit bull” they assume the worst. While the story I’m about to tell is about a pit bull named Mack, the word ”attack” in this story refers to the aggressive efforts of a Missing Pet Partnership volunteer who made it his personal mission to recover one lost dog. The recovery story of Mack highlights Missing Pet Partnership’s vision for community-based lost pet services–volunteers who do everything in their power, even when it takes weeks, to reunite a lost companion animal with their family. Here’s how it began:

Mack (left) and Rocco (right)

On December 12, 2010, two male blue pit bulls who lived and played together escaped from their yard in Federal Way, Washington. Mack and Rocco were naughty dogs but as we all know, dogs escape from their homes on a daily basis. What made their case unique was that their owner, Nick, was overseas, serving in Iraq. The housemate who was watching the dogs made an effort to find the dogs but failed. Several weeks passed without either Mack or Rocco showing up at the local animal shelter and hope began to fade.

On January 10th, MPP volunteer Ryan Gamache found two stray brindle pit bulls. As in all cases when our volunteers find a stray dog, we all THINK LOST, NOT STRAY and therefore assume it is a lost (not stray) dog and attempt to find the owner. Ryan posted a Craig’s List Ad that read “Two Found Pit bulls: Call To ID.” This is how Nick’s family, who lived back east, first heard about Missing Pet Partnership. They called MPP to say their two blue pit bulls, Mack & Rocco, had been missing for nearly a month. They were crushed to hear that the two pit bulls that Ryan found were brindles (who were reunited with their owner). That meant Mack and Rocco were still missing.

But now Mack and Rocco were on Ryan’s radar. He communicated with Nick via e-mail and and realized just how much Nick loved his dogs and how worried and helpless he felt to be in the Middle East, fighting for our freedom while his two dogs were missing. Ryan made it his personal mission to find Mack and Rocco, no matter what it took.

Tragically, and without going into detail, Ryan discovered that Rocco had been killed and that Mack fled. But at least we had a sighting and an area to start searching so Ryan got to work. He posted giant, neon posters that read ”LOST BLUE PITBULL BLUE COLLAR” along a major roadway in Federal Way near where Rocco was killed. Immediately, leads came in. Yes, a blue pit bull with a blue collar was seen just a few days ago in this neighborhood. Then another lead, he was seen over there.

The next day, January 17th, the hottest lead of all came in–a blue pit bull with a blue collar was coming around one man’s house. Ryan immediately responded and with the home owner’s permission, set out a plate of dog food and wildlife camera to see if we could capture pictures of the dog.

Wildlife Camera Confirms The "Stray" Is Mack!

It was Mack! The next step was setting up the humane dog trap. So Ryan dragged the dog trap and set it up, along with the camera. A day passed. Nothing. A few more days passed. Still nothing. A full week passed by without Mack showing up on camera, let alone entering our dog trap. Ryan was discouraged, but not about to give up. On January 26th, Ryan and two MPP volunteers, Chris DeLaRosa and Dianna Stacy, went out and posted new LOST BLUE PITBULL BLUE COLLAR posters close to the last sighting. The next morning, leads began to flood in! At around 11:00 a.m. we received a fresh sighting–Mack was seen an hour earlier in the caller’s front yard.

Since the humane trap had failed and we had learned that Mack loved other dogs, I offered to use my magnet dog Kody and my stainless steel (65″) Snappy Snare (a technique we’ve pioneered at Missing Pet Partnership and use to capture hard-to-catch-dogs) to capture Mack. Now that we had a fresh sighting of Mack, I called Ryan, grabbed Kody and my Snappy Snare, and headed to the sighting.

Ryan and I spent over an hour looking for Mack but we didn’t find him. As luck would have it, as soon as I left and arrived home I received a phone call. A woman named Karen saw our neon sign and called MPP to say she was a passenger in a car that WAS FOLLOWING MACK AT THAT MOMENT! I kept her on the line which enabled me to call Ryan on my cell phone and direct him where to go until he found Karen’s car and Mack.

Ryan had a catch pole and treats and tried to entice Mack, but Mack wouldn’t have any of it. I lived about 5 minutes away. By the time I arrived and pulled around the corner I could see Ryan, a 1/2 block away and Mack, who was standing in the middle of the street about 5 houses down from me. I knew I would have just enough time to open my car door, walk to the back of my SUV, open the hatchback, grab my Snappy Snare, let Kody out of her crate (her long leash was attached to her harness), and Mack would be right there.

And that’s exactly what happened! Right as Kody hit the ground and I walked her from behind my SUV, Mack was a few yards away. But he immediately began to wag his tail and walked right up to sniff noses with a tail-wiggling-Kody. My Snappy Snare was positioned over Kody’s nose so that when they sniffed noses, I could move it over Mack’s head, release the ring, and catch Mack. It was a textbook capture and we had Mack!

My biggest disappointment was that we did not get film footage of this capture. However, if you’d like to see video footage of another case where I used magnet dog Kody and my Snappy Snare to capture a another skittish pit bull on a different MPP recovery case, watch this video HERE

Mack was on the run for a total of 45 days. Ryan took him to the vet plus fostered him until Nick came home a week later. While I missed the live reunion between Nick and Mack, I stopped by a few hours later.

Ryan has his own pit bull named Karma (she’s one of our wiggly cat detection dogs) who had fallen in love with Mack. I enjoyed watching Nick and Ryan and their dogs interact. I snapped a picture as Nick massaged Mack’s ear as he told us about how he’d wished we could have met Rocco.

Friends (Nick & Mack and Ryan & Karma)

The night ended with my taking a portrait of Nick and Ryan, two new friends posing with the dogs they loved. The best news is that Nick came back to the states because he and Mack are moving into a new place (with a secure yard) in California. Like so many families who MPP has helped recover a beloved lost pet, Nick was grateful to Ryan and to Missing Pet Partnership. And Ryan was rewarded with what keeps our volunteers at MPP passionate about the volunteer work that we do–the joy of making a difference.

Source (and more pictures and hyperlinks): http://katalbrecht.com/blog/?p=936

Beau, newfoundland-rottie mix

Missing Dog Crashes Wedding
Rochester Kennel To Replace Gates
June 24, 2008

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- A 17-day search for a dog from Rochester ended at a wedding reception Tuesday.

Paula and Rick Colman decided to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary by going on a trip and leaving their 7-year-old dog, Beau, in a kennel for the first time ever.

But when a customer of Country-Brook Kennels left a gate open on the morning of June 5, Beau took off.

Bonnie O'Shea, the owner of Country Brook Kennels, said she will never forget the day when the 130-pound Newfoundland-Rottweiler mix disappeared, marking the first escape at the facility in its 12 years of business.

"It was horrible. You have no idea how upset we were," O'Shea said. "I get tears because that's how upset I was."

WMUR News 9's Kimberly Bookman reported that Beau took off on busy Route 11 in Rochester and couldn't be caught.

His owners cut their trip short to come home and look for Beau. They searched the woods, put up 1,000 lost dog signs and created a Craigslist posting about him.

During the span of three weeks that they passed, the couple received tip after tip from people who believed to have seen Beau.

The Colmans even checked out a bear standoff in Rochester in their hunt.

"The bear was up the tree but I still had to look anyway to make sure it wasn't my dog," Paula Colman said.

Fate Attends Wedding

Seventeen days later, while O'Shea worked as a bartender at a wedding, someone crashed the reception, and O'Shea went to look for herself.

"Disbelief. Relieved. Absolute shock," O'Shea said of the discovery.

"I got a call first from the police saying, 'We've got your dog, he's at The Governor's Inn.' And I said, 'Is he in custody?'" Paula Colman said.

When the Colmans arrived, Beau was posing for pictures with the bride and groom.

"My heart just melted," Paula Colman said. "I grabbed him, hugged him and cried."

Beau lost 20 pounds, had some ticks and scrapes to his paws, but he's healthy.



The kennel has since announced plans to replace gates on the property.

Source: http://www.wmur.com/r/16702143/detail.html
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Daisy, sheltie

The Ultimate Christmas Gift: A Lost Dog, Found!
Summit residents and dog lovers join together to save a lost dog and deliver the ultimate Christmas present to one local family.
By Michelle Colandrea (New Providence Patch)
February 7, 2011

Nothing brings a community together quite like a shared mission and just before Christmas, Summit residents young and old found themselves unified on such a quest in search of a lost dog named Daisy.

Susan Grates is happily reunited with her dog Daisy who went missing for three and a half days in December but was miraculously found on Christmas morning.

You might remember having been in your local coffee shop or grocery store during the days leading up to December 25 and seeing a lost dog flier posted on the door. Or maybe you received the e-mail that showed up in countless inboxes that described the details of the dog’s possible whereabouts. Or perhaps you read a breaking news alert advising locals to keep their eyes open for the Blue Merl Sheltie on your town’s Patch homepage.

However you heard about the search for one of Summit’s four legged residents, we hope you also heard about her miraculous Christmas morning rescue. Read on for the heartwarming tale of a lost dog, the spirit and support of a New Jersey community, and a very happy ending.

On December 22, Summit resident Susan Grates, along with her husband and their three grown children and their families, were enjoying a holiday vacation in relaxing Puerto Vallarta, Mexico when miles away in chilly New Jersey, the Grates’ dog Daisy had just escaped from her sitter’s New Providence home.

“That breed (of dog) really wants to be in their home,” Grates said. “They want to defend their own property. (Daisy) wasn’t home, and she wanted to get home!”

For the next 48 hours or so, the Grates would be completely unaware of the devastating event that would soon gain the attention of residents and authorities in New Providence, Summit, Berkeley Heights and surrounding towns.

The Grates family had agreed to remain relatively “unplugged” from their electronic devices during their vacation save for the wireless internet access provided at their hotel. According to Grates, the family members didn’t own international cell phones, they hadn’t lugged their laptops along with them, and they hadn’t left their contact information with anyone back home in Summit.

“We’re never under the radar, and it’s kind of a nice thing to be unplugged,” said Grates of what could have been a relaxing vacation away from daily phone calls and e-mail messages.

But 2,278 miles away in New Providence, Daisy’s dog sitter and family were chasing after the Grates’ dog.

“When she’s scared, she runs surprisingly fast,” said Grates of the 23-pound dog which she and her husband have owned for more than six years.

Having had no luck apprehending the speedy canine, the searchers immediately contacted the Summit and New Providence police departments and eventually informed the authorities in Berkeley Heights as well. Grates had left the contact information of family friend and neighbor Tine Mikkelsen in case of an emergency and she was soon alerted of the news.

Mikkelsen played a crucial part in spreading the word about the missing Daisy. She sent out alerts through Facebook and Craigslist, posted fliers, called area veterinarians, and sent out an e-mail that eventually reached Patch staff inboxes.

“She was perseverance personified,” said Grates of her friend.

Other area residents also joined the search effort including a neighbor's son Matt who assembled some friends and used his new Christmas flashlights to look for the missing furry friend. Even Paw, the Mikkelsens’ golden retriever helped to search for her canine companion.

“In this neighborhood especially, most everyone cares about the dogs,” said Daisy’s owner.

On Christmas Eve, the news finally reached the vacationing Grates via a family member’s Smartphone internet connection. Shortly after they were informed, Susan decided to make the trip back to New Jersey to assist Daisy’s search team.

“I figured, ‘I’ll never be able to find (Daisy), it’s a needle in a haystack,’” said Grates of her thoughts on the decision to head home and help with the search.

As luck would have it, Grates wouldn’t even have to step foot in America before her beloved Daisy was discovered.

According to Grates, the final rescue effort began on Christmas morning in nearby Berkeley Heights. A happy family (who have yet to be identified) were opening their Christmas presents when the mother spotted Daisy through a window. The woman had received the chain email the day before and seen the lost dog flier posted in her local Dunkin’ Donuts, telling of the missing sheltie.

“She said ‘That looks like that dog!’” recounted Grates of the story she’d been told. “So what do they do? They stopped opening their gifts, they dropped what they were doing, and the man got in the car to follow Daisy.”

Meanwhile, the man’s wife made the necessary phone calls to let searchers know the dog had been spotted. Soon, a team of dog lovers, family friends including the Mikkelsens and Paw, and neighbors who heard the news were out of their homes and on the streets to do what they could to get Daisy home.

The story ends in a Berkeley Heights neighborhood near Summit Medical Group where a fellow dog lover had cornered Daisy on his front porch and was keeping her captive through the skillful use of doggie treats.

“So then there’s this crowd of people Christmas morning descending upon Daisy!” said Grates of the scene when Daisy was finally found.

Altogether, Daisy had traveled at least three miles and spent three and a half days without any reliable source of food or water.

Less than 24 hours after the dog’s discovery, a record breaking blizzard would sweep through New Jersey and those involved would call it a miracle that Daisy was found in the nick of time.

“Our friends never gave up searching daily along with their children and dogs, putting food and water on our porch and checking our yard and property several times a day in case she found her way back home," Grates said, calling the efforts of those involved “tireless” and described them as “an outpouring of love.”

Since Daisy’s return, the Grates and their dog’s unlikely search team have continued to receive congratulations and well-wishes from friends and town residents.

“Our visit to the Murray Hill Vet's office was more an exhilarated family reunion with stories of Daisy sightings than a regular pet check-up," Grates said. "The MHV staff congratulated us, expressed their concern, and informed us of the many well wishers who had contacted their office."

Grates said repeatedly that she would like to thank all of those who took part in Daisy’s rescue.

“It was heartwarming; we were very moved by it. I think that it brought people together, it really did. I think it goes beyond just the love of a dog. It speaks to people wanting to help each other out in these three communities.”

Source: http://newprovidence.patch.com/articles/the-ultimate-christmas-gift-a-lost-dog-found-2

Koby, malamute/husky

OLIVER ALERT FANS HELP GET DOG BACK AFTER SEVENTEEN MONTHS!!!
Dawn H Wilson, Oliver Alert

On July 28 at 11:29pm, Denise Wirth Stover uploaded a picture onto Facebook’s Oliver Alert page of a dog that had been lingering around their neighborhood. Denise posted, “This Malamute/Husky has been wandering around the south Paulding County area of Ridge Road/Seals Road area for a couple of weeks. He finally just came up to us tonight and asked us for some food and water. We let him in and obliged. Let me know if you have any idea where he belongs.”

Less than 24 hours later, an official Oliver Alert notice was published onto Facebook. Oliver Alert has almost 2,000 fans that help share postings of lost and found animals. On that day, Tracy Lee Yates reposted the Oliver Alert information of the found Husky onto her personal Facebook page.

On July 30 at 5:55am, Royce Underwood noticed the Oliver Alert posting on his Facebook News Feed made by a former high school friend of his, Tracy Yates. The dog looked like his son’s lost Husky who had been missing for over a year. Royce commented on the Oliver Alert posting, “Does this guy have a bad back leg? My son’s husky “Koby” disappeared out of our yard. We put up posters and put up signs all over. We truly think someone took him out of there.”

On July 31, I logged onto Oliver Alert and noticed an urgent plea from Kristie Brown-Underwood stating, “To Denise Wirth Stover… I have been desperately trying to contact you. My sons Husky Koby has been missing for a year. The picture you posted looks just like him. He has a tuft of white hair on his neck, and when he was a puppy he broke his leg so he limps a little. please contact me. – Kristie”

By the time, Denise and Kristie connected, the Husky had gotten away again. However, the Underwood’s had a renewed sense of hope and a specific geographic location of where to go.

Kristie Underwood’s son raced to Paulding County, Georgia, which is 2 hours away to find this dog and see if he was Koby or not. Kristie’s son found the dog and the “gentleman” who had been keeping the Husky for two weeks would not give him back. Certain that this was their Koby, the Underwood family would take whatever action was needed to bring their beloved dog back home.

After several heated conversations as well as calls to authorities and Koby’s former vet…the man keeping the husky called and said, “come get him.”

On August 2nd at 12:23am, Royce Underwood joyfully updated the Oliver Alert page with the message, “FOUND!!!!! after 17 months. Original posting from Denise Wirth Stover.”

Through veterinary records, the Underwood’s were able to verify that this husky was in fact their lost dog, Koby.

The sweet words of seeing, “He’s Home” makes this a great Success Story not only for the Stover, Yates and Underwood families but, for me as well, the girl who started Oliver Alert.

Thank you Oliver Alert fans…You might “like” Oliver Alert, but we love you!!

Source: http://www.oliveralert.com/success-stories/

Dawson, beagle

Lost dog happily reunited with owners
.CBC News
Friday, February 11, 2011 | 2:46 PM

Dawson the beagle was rescued Friday by HRM Animal Services officers after a neighbour alerted them to the lost dog, who was trapped in a Nova Scotia Power compound on Windmill Road.

A six-month old beagle had a happy reunion with his owners Friday after going missing for two days.

"Dawson" ended up trapped inside a Nova Scotia Power compound on Windmill Road in Dartmouth.

His owners had been frantically searching for him since Wednesday, putting up flyers, contacting local radio stations, and even posting his photo on Kijiji.

They were contacted by HRM Animal Services this morning after a woman who lives across the street from the compound contacted the city, concerned about the dog.

Dawson's owner Don Ellis said the dog was lost nearly two and a half kilometres from where was found. The family had been frantically searching for him since Wednesday.

She had first noticed him Thursday, and when she heard the dog barking again Friday morning, called the city.

Don Ellis said the dog managed to get off his leash Wednesday, in the snow on Victoria Road, while his son was babysitting relatives near Dartmouth Highschool. In an unfamiliar area, Ellis said Dawson just kept running.

Ellis was surprised the dog made his way nearly two and half kilometres from where he was lost.

"We concentrated our search there," said Ellis. I thought he was too timid to get this far. I thought he'd just find a place to hide, but I guess ... wherever there was food."

Animal Services officers had difficulty getting Dawson to come out of the compound, and had to call Ellis and his wife, to come coax the dog out.

There was a tearful moment as the owners thanked the neighbour who alerted animal protection officers to their pet.

"Sometimes you get lucky," said Ellis.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/02/11/ns-beagle-rescue.html

Asher, Australian Shepherd

Canine, missing since recent tornado, reunited with family
by Mike Landis, KY3 News
January 23, 2011
 

 
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- One of "man's best friends" brought some hope to a community recovering from the New Year's Eve tornado outbreak. Asher is a 3-year-old Australian shepherd that disappeared after his family's home was swept away.

"There was one missing link to our family that held us back from moving on," said Norma Mitchell, owner of the dog.

There were scattered reports of Asher being sighted on the post. The Mitchell family eventually secured new housing, and began the search for Asher. Posters for Asher were plastered across the fort and a Facebook page was set up for the cause.

Soon, the search grew into an affair involving at least 100 people. Volunteers from the fort banded together to help find the dog. For three weeks they combed woods, fields, and neighborhoods.

Late last week, Mitchell family decided to drive by the site of their old house "one last time." That's when they found that Asher was back.

"I got down on my hands and knees and I was like begging him, 'Asher, come on, come on, come to me,'" said Mitchell.

The dog had lost at least 11 pounds, which Mitchell jokingly said was a good thing. A veterinarian gave him a clean bill of health.

"He didn't obviously didn't give up on his family, and they sure didn't. What wonderful pet owners that they didn't give up on him," said SFC Julie Paramore, who helped organize the search.

Those who spent time searching for Asher believe his story has brought a little bit of hope to the community, which will be recovering from the tornado for some time.

"From the Humane Society standpoint, things aren't always positive and we are not always dealing with happy endings. This is definitely one of the good things," said Kim Fuhr, president of the Pulaski County Humane Society.



Many of the volunteers met Asher for the first time on Sunday at a homecoming party held in his honor.

Source: http://articles.ky3.com/2011-01-23/asher_27045739

Ziggy, long-haired dachshund

Microchip helps reunite dog with man
By Kimberly Yuen
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 06, 2010

The Labuguen family of Mililani was wrapping up a weekend on Kauai at Hamura Saimin Stand when a black long-haired dachshund without a collar approached Bennet Labuguen and son Bryson Sunday at about 8 p.m.

Starr Dods of the Hawaiian Humane Society holds Ziggy, a 2-year-old dachshund who was found on Kauai without a collar.

"My son didn't want to leave him on the street," said Labuguen, who found himself buying a pet carrier and bringing the dog back with them to Oahu on July 26.

Back home, Labuguen contacted the Hawaiian Humane Society, which discovered the dog has an implanted microchip ID. The four-legged fella had a name, Ziggy, and an owner, Ron Carvalho of Lihue. Man and dog were reunited on Kauai days later.

"I tripped out," Carvalho said. "I was so blown away when I got the call that he was in Honolulu."

He said he has had Ziggy for about a year and usually lets him run loose. He said Ziggy had chewed off his collar. While the dog has run off a couple of times, he's returned home before sundown. Just not that time.

Source: "This is just another example of why microchipping a pet is so important," said Hawaiian Humane Society spokeswoman Starr Dods. "There have been many times when an animal has lost his ID and collar."

She said if it weren't for the microchip, Ziggy probably would have been put up for adoption.

Instead, the Humane Society contacted Pacific Air Express, which agreed to return Ziggy to Kauai at no cost.

"He didn't ask for a ride to Honolulu, so he shouldn't have to ask for a ride to go home," said Thomas Ingram, vice president of operations at Pacific Air Express.

source: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20100806_Microchip_helps_reunite_dog_with_man.html
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Lars, presa canario/pit bull mix

Born to be Wild
Kirsten Slade, Mindful Handler, Peaceful Dog
Saturday, February 5, 2011

It has been some time since I posted, largely because this blog is for me a place to chronicle my successes and provide a boost--to myself and other dog trainers and dog fanatics--when we sorely need them. When the news is not so encouraging, the inspiration leaves me. Which is all a way of saying that Lars' adoption did not work out, Lars moved to another foster home, Lars escaped from that foster home, and Lars has been on the run in Rosedale, MD ever since--for a month now!

The good news is that his most recent foster, Gigi, has shown a heroic level of dedication to getting him back, and that we continue to get calls and emails from people who say they've seen him. The sightings are concentrated along Route 7 near 695 in Rosedale, and he is apparently eating the deer carcasses left near the salt dome by transportation workers and the food we've left in the area. The entire town of Rosedale seems to be involved in the search and concerned. Both Gigi and I have seen him, or at least what we think is him--but he didn't come to us, just kept running.

We are hoping that at some point he'll get tired, or he'll fall in love with another dog like he did with Fozzie and stick around.

The situation depressed the crap out of me for a while. I felt I had failed him. This scared dog who needed protection from an unfriendly world was all alone, fending for himself again. All those months of stress, the fights with Lamar, the endless anxiety over whether there was any human in the world with the patience and the lovingkindness to be able to stick with Lars for the long haul, see in him what I saw in him, but have the space and the calmness of temperament and the right amount of other dogs to be really at peace with who Lars was.....all that, only for Lars to end up on the street again.

What was the point of it all?

Well, we have learned a lot about tracking lost dogs.

The most important thing is to put up signs in the area where the dog was last seen. Harness volunteers and put up as many as possible, focusing on highly visible intersections. Put down food where he's last been seen.
Leave scraps of clothing that smell like the people and dogs he loves.

As others recommended to us, hire a tracking dog. The scent tracking dog can verify sightings, show you where the dog has been, help you concentrate more sign-posting efforts. If the dog is moving slowly enough and hunkers down somewhere, the tracking dog can lead you right to him.

But what if the dog doesn't want to be found? What if the dog is already semi-feral, is skilled at surviving on the streets, has always had mixed feelings about humans, and is a fast little devil on top of it? In the case of Mallory, my foster dog who got lost years ago, the tracker dog led us clear to the opposite side of town from where she was eventually found; Mallory was recovered because diligent sign-posting led to calls which led to a feeding station and volunteer presence that were in the right place at the right time. In the case of Lars, the tracker folk gave up on getting us anywhere close to him because he is covering so much ground.

Next steps, we will try to pinpoint a location to place a live trap with really good food in it. Will Lars go into a trap? Good question!

Lars, please remember how you once enjoyed your crate

Can we get a sharp-shooter with a tranquilizer gun to the right place at the right time? Maybe we'll try!

These questions remain, but despite them, I am relatively at peace with Lars now. My heart still longs for him and prays for him but part of me has surrendered. It happened on the last day that I went up to Rosedale to help with the search.

This was the fourth time I had spent all day driving around, putting up signs, leaving scraps of my clothing and piles of food, hiking through streets, streams, woods, and people's yards to leave my scent for him, urinating wherever I could get away with it, and encouraging Fozzie to do the same. This was the time that I went to the salt dome where the carcasses are, was walking with Fozzie along the utility line, coming up a hill, when ahead of us a large....white....dog ran up the hill and in the opposite direction, barely stopping to look.

Fozzie and I followed those pawprints in the fresh snow for the next 3 hours along heavily traveled trails and through silent, pristine woods, watching, in heavily trafficked areas, for the pawprints that were heavier and darker in the snow, and spaced out in a line rather than plotted in a rough trapezoid like those of dogs on a relaxed leashed stroll with their owners. I kept thinking, maybe he'll get cornered in a yard or on a porch, then he'll see me and stop running. Maybe he'll remember life with humans has its perks.

When that failed to happen--when bone tiredness set in and I realized it was time to buy Fozzie some pepperoni and call it a day--I found myself for the first time in a state of peace. Lars--in both appearance and temperament--is so close to his lupine forebears. Far closer than someone like Fozzie, with his floppy ears and his addiction to human contact, or Lamar, who is never more content than when he is sprawled across his humans' queen-sized bed and getting an ear rub. Lars is getting the exercise, the mental stimulation, the challenge and excitement of finding his own food that come naturally to wild dogs. And he is surviving.

Which is not to say that if given the chance, I wouldn't wrap his fuzzy body in my arms and kiss his nose for the rest of eternity. Come home young man!


UPDATE BY EMAIL
Subject: Lars is found
Date: Monday, February 7, 2011, 6:27 AM

After a month and a day of running around Parkville and Rosedale, after we put up signs and hired a tracking dog and rolled around and urinated in the woods to leave our scent and hiked for miles with his best doggie friends and set a trap on private property and got yelled at and threatened with arrest :), Lars was lured to safety by a kind woman who saw him around the past few days and tossed him meaty snacks until he came inside.

After doing nothing but running and evading capture all those weeks, he is now curling up contentedly on his blankie and playing with his doggie friends, as if he had never left!

I believe it was someone on this list who passed my first email on to contacts in the Baltimore area, who forwarded and crossposted it, which led to an amazing outpouring of support from that community with seemingly everyone in Rosedale looking out for him and calling and emailing with sightings, which led to whatever combination of magical circumstances allowed him to finally approach someone who then called us. We cannot thank you enough!

Source: http://peacefuldog.blogspot.com/2011/02/born-to-be-wild.html