Buster Brown, lab mix

Boulder dog triumphantly returns home after 6-month sojourn to California
By John Aguilar, Boulder Daily Camera Staff Writer
06/03/2011

Buster Brown mysteriously disappeared from his home on Olde Stage Road in November

Was he curled up at the base of the Book Cliffs in western Colorado? Did he roam the back alleys of Salt Lake City after dark? Did he slake a fierce thirst on the shores of Lake Tahoe?

Samantha Squires and her son, Darian, with Buster Brown at their home before the dog's disappearance in November.

It will likely never be known how Buster Brown, a 7-year-old mutt that went missing in mid-November from his home near Boulder, ended up in Salinas, Calif., and exactly what he was up to along the way.

But any speculation as to the beagle/retriever/pit bull's whereabouts over the last six months yielded to elation Friday when Buster's owner, Samantha Squires, reunited with her "magical dog" at Denver International Airport amid a waterfall of tears and a vigorous, thigh-slapping tail.

"I never gave up on him and I thought about him every day," she said hours before Buster Brown landed at DIA on a Frontier flight from San Francisco. "It wouldn't be surprising to me that he was looking for us the whole time."

It was Nov. 19 and Squires was headed out to Boulder Reservoir for a run. When she returned to her Olde Stage Road home that afternoon, Buster Brown had simply vanished from the back yard. She noticed that a gate was slightly ajar.

The dog had wandered off on a couple of occasions before, so Squires didn't immediately panic. She knew Buster Brown was deeply bonded to her after she rescued him as an abandoned puppy from the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.

"He had massive separation anxiety," she said. "He could not be away from me ever. But once he followed his nose, he had a little trouble there."

The single mother admitted that as the months dragged on, she had tugs of doubt about her close companion, fearing that a mountain lion might have claimed the pooch in the foothills west of Boulder. She even adopted a new dog, named Toby, three weeks ago.

But despite her misgivings, she kept all of Buster Brown's toys, and as recently as last weekend, decided against taking his allergy report down from the kitchen wall.

"I have not thrown away one thing from Buster," she said.

'He looked tired'

On May 20, more than 1,200 miles away, Peter Ochoa noticed a strange dog sitting on the front porch of his home in Salinas, Calif., an agricultural community about 100 miles south of San Francisco.

The dog, which had no collar, moved to the back of the house and laid down under an old Ford truck.

"He looked like a big bear," Ochoa said. "He laid there staring at me like, 'Are you going to take me in?'"

Ochoa said he approached Buster Brown, told him to sit, and then shook his paw.

"He looked tired, we gave him water, and his tail was wagging," he said.

The family called animal control, and a police officer picked up the dog. Ochoa said he told the officer that if the local animal shelter couldn't find a home for the animal, he would provide one.

"If you're going to put him down, I'll take him," he remembered saying.

Staff at the Salinas Animal Shelter found a microchip in Buster Brown and tried calling the numbers that came up. But they were no good, said shelter manager Cindy Burnham.

She said the shelter sent a certified letter to the last known address associated with the microchip.

Heart started 'racing'

On Tuesday, Squires went out to retrieve her mail. She saw the letter from California, read it, and her heart started "racing."

"It said 'If you don't call us by (Tuesday) May 31, Buster will become the property of California,'" she said.

Which meant adoption at best, Squires said, and euthanasia at worst.

She desperately called the shelter several times and was finally able to confirm that Buster Brown was indeed there, 13 pounds heavier than when he had left Boulder.

"That could be because he was eating pizza out of a Dumpster," Squires said.

Squires immediately started trying to put together plans to get her dog back to Colorado. As a single mother with a 4-year-old son, she wasn't able to make the drive to the West Coast. And she couldn't afford to fly him back.

Squires scrolled through her list of Facebook contacts and attempted to set up a relay of sorts, with friends driving Buster Brown east through several legs of the 1,200-mile journey.

That's when Frontier offered to fly the dog for free.

"It was an act of kindness," Squires said, referring not only the airline's generosity, but to everyone else who played a role in getting her dog back home.

She also noted how critical it was that Buster Brown had a microchip implanted for identification.

"The chip is big," she said. "Everyone should chip their dog."

Adventure remains a mystery

Squires said she'll probably never know what happened to her "first child" during the six months he was on the road.

She guesses that he didn't travel the full distance from Colorado to California by foot, but got an unsolicited ride along the way.

"I think someone fell in love with him and took him and couldn't take care of him and that's when the journey began," Squires said. "My guess is he lived in a couple of homes and was a stray toward the end. People would take care of him -- he's just a doggy you want to love."



Source: http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_18198413
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Another version of the story, and video, at http://www.ksbw.com/r/28115054/detail.html

Reunion video found at http://denver.cbslocal.com/2011/06/03/boulder-dog-found-in-california-reunited-with-family/