Dog lost in Kennedale
Social media leads to bull fighter's tweet reunion!
Written by Tammy Jones
Mar 15, 2011 at 12:19 PM
Toby, is an Australian Shepard who was rescued from an abusive situation over a year ago.
He's now best friends with professional bull fighter Jesse James Vick and son Cutter of Burleson, TX.
Toby and Cutter. Friends reunited.
On Wednesday March 9th Toby & Jesse drove to Kennedale to buy horse shoes at Texas Ferrier Supply on New Hope Road. It was a warm day, so Jesse rolled the windows down on his pick up truck, left Toby in the cab and went inside Texas Ferrier Supply.
When he returned to the truck, Toby was gone. He'd run off.
Jesse went home to Burleson without his dog.
On Thursday, I saw the frightened Australian Shepard running across New Hope Road dodging cars. I could tell he looked lost and felt really guilty for not stopping to help him; I thought he was an unfortunate victim of dumping that sometimes happens out near my home and I have enough animals.
When I pulled in my own driveway I was a little sad thinking about the scared Australian Shepard I'd just seen; and I mentioned it to my kids. I actually had to squash my 23 year olds attempts to find him.
On Friday, I was monitoring Twitter as I always do for tweets about Kennedale.
To my suprise there it was @Dallas_CL: Lost Austrailian Shephard Kennedale Texas: Lost black tri colored Austrailian Shephard on 3/9/11 in Kennedale.
To make a long story short, I replied to the tweet poster telling them when and where I'd seen their dog.
That evening Jesse's mom, Reedee Vick called me and was on New Hope looking for their dog.
"My sons a professional bull fighter and this is his traveling buddy. He travels rodeo."
"We rescued him from a breeder about a year ago and he's just become his little traveling buddy."
She was unsuccessful in finding Toby that evening.
The next day she sought help from Russell & Debbie Fincher, who live in the area. As it turns out she's known the Fincher's for many years saying they used to race cars together. [small world huh?]
Reedee said the Fincher's reported seeing the dog, and Russell got on his four wheeler to look for Toby. Still they couldn't find him.
Jesse lives on his ranch in Burleson Texas with his 4 year old son Cutter James Vick where he raises Black Angus Cattle and Quarter Horses.
The next day Jesse took his basset hound with him to search for the missing shepard. Having a general idea of where Toby was; Jesse parked and hollered for the dog. Just when he let the basset hound out of the truck Toby stuck his nose out of the woods. When Toby saw the basset hound he ran straight to them and was so glad to see Jesse; and vice versa.
Reedee used various social media outlets like CraigsList and PetFinder to try and locate Toby. Saying now she needs to go back and cancel her postings.
The Vick's were very happy to be reunited with their lost friend, and he was very hungry when he got home.
"He ate five bowls of food. Bam, bam, bam, just as fast as he could eat it."
"He was a mess - he was full of ticks and he was a mess. He was gone four days. From Wednesday to Sunday."
"I’ve got that basset hound; they’re buddies. He sleeps with that basset hound. They were sure glad to see each other. He don’t leave our side."
"He’d been real timid when we got him. He’d been abused at that breeder. He’s akc registered. He was real timid with men and I don't know why."
"I gave him to Jessie; he’s a good little old dog, I just hated to lose him."
Thanks to smart use of social media, she didn't.
Source: http://www.kennedalenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1252&Itemid=9
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