Tuesday, Yorkshire Terrier

Tuesday's Tale of Terror!
Told by Melissa Quillan To Lost Dogs Found
June 8, 2011

While visiting my mom in Luray, Virginia over the Memorial Day weekend, our Yorkshire terrier “Tuesday” decided to go for a walk on her own. She slipped through the front door that wasn’t shut all the way. This was Sunday evening around 6pm.

Within 20 minutes of her being gone, our search had begun. Within the first hour, we had almost 10 people looking. We had fliers printed, and we posted the search on Facebook. We did not find her that first night.

Monday morning we began our Craigslist posts on all of the Virginia cities. We listed her in both the Lost & Found sections and the Pets sections. By Monday afternoon, I had resolved that someone probably had her. The passage of time without her and not knowing where she could be was excruciating, as anyone who has experience this can understand.

Finally, on Wednesday evening, I received a phone call. It was an amazing call that I will never, ever forget! It was from a woman that said she knew who had our dog! Here’s what she told me:

She said that she lives and works in Washington DC, which is about and hour and 45 min away from Luray. It seems that someone that she works with that was visiting the area over the weekend had “found” a yorkie.

Being a doggie mommy, she had asked her co-worker if the dog had tags. He responded that the little dog had a name tag, but that it didn’t have any numbers on it, so they decided to bring the dog home with them. (Tuesday’s tag had not only her name, but two cell phone numbers listed.)

The woman knew that a dog like the one her co-worker described must have a family missing her, and it was sounding as if the man wasn’t concerning himself with the dog’s family that might be looking everywhere for her. So this wonderful woman went in search of lost dog ads on Craigslist, and found one of our many ads.

Early on Thursday morning, she gave him our contact info. Surprise, surprise – he told her a story that the dog had run out on him just the night before. How about that!

So she provided me with his contact information, and I called and spoke with him. He was very vague about the details of where she was lost from, and that’s when I contacted the police.

I didn’t know precisely where he was located when I contacted Fairfax City police Dept, but I had the good fortune to get a wonderful officer on the line, and she instructed me in just how to speak to him and what to say to increase the pressure on the man when I called him back. She said that if the man didn’t return the dog to me within 24 hours, they were going to put a trace on his cell phone to locate him. She was great!

I tried calling him, but he never picked up my calls. I then contacted his coworker that had called us, and shared my suspicions with her that he had our dog and wanted to keep her, and the fact that I had filed a police report. The coworker decided to reveal what she knew to management in their company. The great people there that she spoke with realized that this was becoming a legal matter that would have him charged with felony theft if he didn’t give up the dog. They sent him home for the day to resolve it.

I received a call from the guy's wife saying that they had “found” our missing dog, after all.

I set up a time and location to pick her up and we got her later that night. They had purchased a new collar, leash and treats for her. When they returned her they gave us all the things they had bought. They even tried to make us feel bad by saying their kids were SO upset that they had to give her back. (I guess they have thought carefully about what they want to teach their kids about right v wrong.)
I will credit us getting our dog back to the courageous coworker/doggie mommy that knew in her heart that our girl had a family looking for her, and to my friends that tirelessly called shelters and rescue groups to get the word out.

We are shaken by what happened, as we believe that this man picked our dog up from as close to home as the corner of the next door neighbor’s yard, but we are so very happy to have her home!