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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