Mottel, pomeranian

Yelp has arrived!
By Kevin Fasick and Aaron Feis
December 31, 2011

A cruel dognapper snatched Mottel a few days ago, but the 17-year-old Pomeranian is starting the new year on a happy bark — he was reunited with his best friend yesterday.

REUNION: Actress and teacher Lenore Harris clutches her prized Pomeranian, Mottel, yesterday after the dog was stolen from her cart in a drugstore.

“It’s a miracle,” said West Sider Lenore Harris, 59, who was grateful to a mother and daughter who rescued Mottel after they found him in a bag at an Upper East Side bus stop a day after he was snatched from her in a drugstore.

“It’s a great holiday New York story,” said Lenore’s sister, Rosalind Harris, an actress who played Tzeitel in the movie “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Lenore, herself an actress who played a public defender on “Law & Order,” said she took Mottel with her to a CVS drugstore at 93rd Street and Broadway Tuesday night.

She put Mottel’s carrier in her shopping cart. She turned to speak to the pharmacist and “it wasn’t even a minute. I turned around and the dog was gone.”

“I ran to the front of the store yelling, ‘Somebody stole my dog!’ ” she said. “The employees said they saw the man walk out very fast with the bag.”

“I know this sounds dramatic, but you want to commit suicide,” said Lenore, who teaches speech at the HB Studio acting school. “I wanted to kill myself.”

She and her two sisters spent $1,500 on fliers and posters and on drivers to take them around looking for him.

The story’s happy ending began Wednesday night when Sonya Thorpe, 43, and her 9-year-old daughter Naomi, saw a bag at the bus stop at 96th Street and First Avenue.

“Naomi picked up the bag. She thought it would be nice for school,” said Thorpe.

“I took it from her and I set the bag down and I heard a whimper.” she said. “I opened the bag and said, ‘Oh my God, he’s so cute.’ ”

Yesterday morning, Thorpe read the tag that indicated he had a microchip and where to call if he was lost.

American Veterinary Identification Devices quickly called Lenore, who went to the Thorpes to get the dog.

Today Lenore is taking Mottel for a special grooming and bath “so he enters the new year sparkling,” she said yesterday at the Westside Veterinary Center, where doctors said Mottel was fine.

Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/yelp_has_arrived_cULfzEMMVXgYLPNGYzl5eJ