Astro, shepherd mix

Tail-wagging ending:
Lebanon dog reunited with family in Blount County
By Joel Davis, The Daily Times
July 25, 2011

"Astro,” a 13-year-old shepherd-mix dog, has been reunited with his family from Lebanon after being found more than 150 miles away in Blount County.

Astro, a 13-year-old shepherd mix, relaxes on Billy Minser’s porch at his home in Maryville. Minser found the dog on his property back on July 8. Turns out that Astro was missing from Lebanon and has now been reunited with his family.

Back on July 8, Maryville resident Billy Minser had an unexpected guest at his home — located out in the country on Gribble Road — a black dog who was later dubbed “Wolf.”

Minser took the dog to the Blount County Animal Center but made it clear to the volunteers that he would foster the dog until there was more room or a home was found for him.

According to volunteer Emily Straquadine, finding an adopter for a 13-year-old dog is no easy task, so, a few days later, when the center reached holding capacity, Minser took the dog back home where it stayed for a few weeks.

On Saturday, Darlene Bakos, another animal center volunteer, received an email about a missing dog named Astro. The photo caught Bakos’ eye because Astro looked a whole lot like Wolf. She alerted the Vescera family, Astro’s owners, and they arrived at Minser’s farm on Sunday for a happy reunion.

“I’m just very grateful for the network of animal rescues in Tennessee that put the word out and worked together to look for Astro,” said Maureen Vescera, one of Astro’s owners. “It’s just amazing how they all worked together for the benefit of getting one dog back to his home.”

Astro had disappeared from his dog sitter’s home around June 30 while the Vesceras were on vacation. Staff at a Lebanon gas station reported that a lady with a white horse trailer had picked the dog up. A week later, he arrived at Minser’s home. “I was a bit shocked to see he was that far away,” Maureen Vescera said.

Vescera heaped praised on Minser. “(Astro) certainly picked the right foster-dad. Billy was amazing with him. It was like Astro was a summer camp the whole time. Here I was worried, and Astro .... was with someone who was very loving to him. ... He’s a wonderful man. He took Astro in like his own. I told Billy if we go to vacation again, we’ll drop Astro off with him.”

This wasn’t Astro’s first brush with an animal shelter. The Vesceras first met the dog, then less than a year old, at the home of a woman who had rescued him from being euthanized at another shelter.

“My husband said, when we were leaving, ‘That’s the dog.’ I said ‘What dog?’ He said ‘The shepherd mix we looked at. He’s our dog.’ We adopted him. From the moment we adopted him, he was just the perfect pet.”

Source: http://www.thedailytimes.com/Local_News/story/Tail-wagging-ending%3A-Lebanon-dog-reunited-with-family-in-Blount-County-id-013946