Zip, English setter

Lost three-legged dog reunited with owner after crossing state border
By Patrick Ronan, The Patriot Ledger
Posted Jan 11, 2012

Zip, a three-legged English setter, went missing during a hunting trip and traveled 30 miles south from a town in New Hampshire, crossing the state border into Massachusetts.

Zip, a three-legged English setter, got lost during a hunting trip in New Hampshire.

But the story ended happily when the 3-year-old dog was returned to his owner less than a week later thanks to a missing-dog alert system that is similar to the Amber Alert program for missing children.

Zip’s owner, a resident of North Hampton, N.H., was ecstatic to find out his dog was coming home.

“I will never forget the sound of those words echoing through the phone, ‘Dad, it’s him, it’s Zip!’” said Marshfield Animal Control Officer Deni Goldman, who is the founder of the SABERAlert system that helps reunite missing dogs with their owners.

Zip went missing Dec. 31 during a bird-hunting trip with his owner. On Jan. 4, a three-legged dog was found just off Interstate 95 in Peabody. The dog was transported to the Animal Rescue League in Dedham, where the shelter’s manager called Goldman, who is also the communications director for the Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts.

Two hours after Goldman issued a SABERAlert, she was contacted by a dog care provider in Newton who said she saw a missing-dog alert in New Hampshire that matched Zip’s description.

So Goldman got in touch with Zip’s owner later that night, and through an email exchange of photos, they confirmed that it was the same dog.

“This is why we developed the SABERAlert, and this is why we are so fortunate to have so many colleagues and affiliates across the state, and further, working with us,” Goldman said. “There is no better feeling than reuniting a family with their lost pet.”

The SABERAlert program sends missing-dog alerts to animal control officers throughout the state. The system has issued 633 alerts since its inception in 2006. About 34 percent of the missing dogs have been reunited with their owners, Goldman said.

Source: http://www.patriotledger.com/features/x123113686/Lost-three-legged-dog-reunited-with-owner-after-crossing-state-border