Aran, collie

Lost Dog Discovered In Ireland Is Reunited With Owners In Scotland
By Sarah Medina, Huffington Post
Posted: 10/19/2012


When a lost dog was found wet and disheveled last month, no one would have guessed that his real home was on the other side of the Irish Sea.

Aran, an elderly black-and-white collie, was discovered wandering around the Carrick-on-Shannon area in Ireland on September 20, reports The Leitrim Observer. He had fallen into the river, but managed to climb his way out, despite having stiff back legs. The unnamed man who discovered him took Aran to the Animal Welfare Centre in Leitrim.

Andrea Sharp, the manger of the center, checked to see if Aran was microchipped.

"Normally we go through FIDO, a registration base for microchipped dogs, and at that point they give us a phone number, and if that rings dead then the search is no more. But in this case they gave me three numbers and one did ring out," Sharp told thejournal.ie

According to the Leitrim Animal Welfare Center Facebook page, the chip was registered to a name and address in Wales. When Sharp called the number, however, the homeowners said that they didn't have a dog.

But Sharp was unwilling to give up the search for Aran's owners. She wrote the family in Wales a letter asking for more information.

“I don’t know what it was. I just felt like I just had to write anyway,” she said.

It turns out that the residents had just moved into the house and provided a forwarding address for the old owners.

When Leitram Animal Welfare Center got in touch with the previous owners, Di and Albie Roberts, who had since moved to Scotland, they were amazed that Aran had been found. The couple immediately caught the first ferry to Ireland, drove throughout the night and arrived to collect Aran. The dog had been missing for 10 days.

"It was an emotional moment," said Sharp. “They were completely and utterly delighted.”

The Roberts had been on holiday in Carrick-On-Shannon with the intention of spending 10 days relaxing, cruising and fishing on the River Shannon, and they brought their 15-year-old collie with them. One day, while they were getting aboard a boat, they took their eyes off the dog for a few minutes – and he disappeared.

Despite searching for hours, and even calling a diver in to check the river, there was no sign of him. The heartbroken couple cut their holiday short and went home -- devastated without Aran.

Aran was able to spend two weeks with his loving owners before he died of liver failure in their arms.

But the story doesn't end there.

Just before he died, the Roberts rescued a companion for him, another collie called Ellie, from a Dogs Trust center in Glasgow. In an amazing twist of fate, the Roberts and Sharp realized that Ellie had originally come from the Leitrim Animal Welfare Center!

"It was such a twist of fate that then it just added to it even more. It felt even more incredible. It’s really lifted everybody here," Sharp said.

“When you think of the chain of events to reunite Aran with his owners any link could have broken and they would never have him back to spend his last days at home with those he loved and who loved him dearly,” she added.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/19/lost-dog-in-ireland-reuni_n_1982800.html

Moby

Lost dog reunited with owner after he was given away
by Crystal Cruz
Posted on October 16, 2012


PHOENIX -- A Scottsdale woman was reunited with her lost dog after the person who found it gave it away to someone in the parking lot of the Arizona Humane Society.

“He's 14. He needs his medicine. He's half blind. Poor little thing, he's probably freaking out,” said Felice, the dog's owner, who did not want to give her last name.

Felice put up missing dog signs around her home and even hired a private investigator to help find him.

“I thought 'Oh my god,' he hasn't had his medicine. His knees go out, he has everything wrong with him, but he's 14 and he's hardy,” Felice said.

Recently someone brought the sick dog to the Arizona Humane Society on 13th Avenue and Hatcher Road in Phoenix.

“Apparently they did not want to wait in line and found someone in the parking lot to turn the dog over to,” said shelter spokeswoman Bretta Nelson.

That is against the rules. There's a sign in front of the shelter that says people are prohibited from picking up or giving away a dog in the parking lot.

“This is one of those random stories that you would think, is this person going to see their pet again? If you were to ask me a week ago, I would say the chances would be slim because how were we to know who that person handed their pet over to?” Nelson said.

Shelter staff went through surveillance video to find out who took the dog home.

Staff recognized the couple, who frequents the shelter thrift store, and the couple gave the dog back.

On Tuesday, Moby and Felice were reunited in front of the shelter as 3TV’s cameras were rolling

Nelson said the couple who had Moby told staff they wanted to give the old dog a good home. The couple thought they were doing something good for the 14-year-old sick dog.

Nelson said this is a perfect example of why people should not swap pets in their parking lot.

Felice took the dog home and said she will now microchip him.



Source: http://www.azfamily.com/news/Lost-dog-reunited-with-owner-after-he-was-given-away-174469731.html

Romeo, Nova Scotia dock tolling retriever

Dog lost in wild found 66 days later
Owner was told 15-year-old pet could not survive
John Moritz
Tuesday, 16 Oct 2012


AUSTIN (KXAN) - After 3 1/2 days criss-crossing the mountainous trails of Hyde Memorial State Park near Santa Fe, N.M., in search of his dog, Austin businessman Mike Stotts decided he had to accept what park rangers and fellow campers had been telling him:

That no 15-year-old house dog with diminished hearing could survive that long without food or water among the coyotes and mid-August heat.

So Stotts, owner of HomePlace Apartments in North Austin, found two pine branches and fashioned a cross. Then he gathered up several large rocks on the side of a mountain in the park, planted the cross and called it Romeo's grave.

"I didn't want to picture him torn apart by coyotes just laying out there," Stotts said, who adopted the golden Nova Scotia duck-tolling retriever as a 12-week-old stray from Town Lake Animal Shelter in July 1997. "I wanted to remember him up on the mountain, looking down at all of the scenery."

Still grieving 66 days after saying goodbye to the dog that went with him everywhere, Stotts was at home Monday morning when he got a call from the dog-chipping company that implanted the identifying device in Romeo. He was told that his dog was alive, rescued by a Santa Fe man who had found him emaciated and injured not far from the primitive park in the Santa Fe National Forest.

The man and his wife had taken to the dog to a local veterinary clinic, which ran the chip that led Romeo to his owner. Tests showed that Romeo had lost about one-third of his body weight and had developed anemia. One of his ears had been ripped.

"I couldn't believe it," Stotts said Tuesday as he and his friend Colleen Ford had crossed into New Mexico on their way to meet the couple and reunite with Romeo. After the reunion later in the day, Stotts said by phone that Romeo was thinner, more tired -- but glad to see the man who he must have been searching for since August.

"He was like, 'Where were you? Why did you leave me?'" Stotts said. "If anyone was expecting him to be all kissy-face, that was never him. But I know he was glad to see me."

Stotts and Romeo had been camping in the primitive park on Aug. 14 when Romeo apparently worked his way through a tent flap in the middle of the night. When Stotts noticed Romeo had left, he began a predawn search that would take him across every hiking trail in the park.

He expanded his search to nearby neighborhoods, tacking up signs with Romeo's photo and offering a reward.

No luck.

Stotts said he told his story to anyone who would listen. Campers he never met joined the search. So did off-duty park rangers.

Again, so sign of Romeo. Or any signs that a house dog had tangled with a coyote or another predator.

"Everybody told me that coyotes were a real problem out there," Stotts said. "There were stories about them going after Lab-sized dogs on leashes. A little 33-pound dog wouldn't have a chance."

So reluctantly, he headed home.

But he was fortunate that Eli Madrid was heading for work near the park a little before daylight on Monday.

"This little dog caught my headlights, so I stopped," Madrid said by phone from Santa Fe. "I like dogs. I have two of my own. This one looked like it needed my help."

So Madrid stopped and the dog came to him. Madrid could tell the dog was tired, hurt and hungry. And he still had a collar, which carried a tag saying he had been chipped.

Madrid got the dog into his car and called his wife, Jamie. They took the dog to the vet to be checked out and to see if the chip was active. It was.


"I guess the lesson here," said Stotts, "is that it pays to have your dog chipped."

Source: http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/dog-lost-in-wild-found-66-days-later

Luna, Australian cattle dog

Dog Lost for Four Months Recognizes Family by Whistle
Life With Dogs
October 12, 2012


Luna, an Australian cattle dog, escaped out of her family’s yard on Mother’s Day this year. It took four months and the help of craigslist before she was reunited with her family again. Her owner’s whistle is what made her feel home again.

On Mother’s Day, Luna escaped through the white picket fence leaving her Colorado home. A neighbor noticed Luna wandering and tried to get her back home, but Luna ran away. Julia and Bruno Furrer placed an ad for their lost dog. A few days later they received a call from a woman in Perry Park, about 12 miles north of their Palmer Lake home. The woman had called animal control to help catch Luna, but once again Luna ran off. The Furrer’s followed the lead hoping Luna would still be in the area, “We went there a few times a day and searched and searched,” Julia said.

The Furrers continued to search for Luna, filing a lost dog report with the Humane Society and placing an ad on craigslist. The search started to slow though as the summer went on.  On Labor Day they finally got another lead on Luna.

The Furrers received a phone call from the Humane Society that another craigslist ad had been placed for a found dog in the Perry Park area. The ad had been placed by Victor Wilcox and Shelley Tailer. They had spotted Luna near a vacant farm. “We saw her at the side of the road,” Wilcox said. “She kind of looked hungry. She was very thin and it was really hot out.” When Wilcox tried to approach Luna she did her routine of running away, but this time she ran into the barn.

Wilcox placed the ad on craigslist and within an hour received responses linking the lost dog with Luna and the Furrers. Upon hearing the news, the Furrers headed up to the barn and met Wilcox. They had found their dog, but Luna looked at the Furrers as if they were strangers. She turned and walked away from them. The Furrers spent two days coming back over and over to the barn to try to get their dog back. “Bruno and Julia never gave up,” Wilcox said. “They were so patient to try to get her back and make sure she knew who they were. It had to be heartbreaking for them.”

Finally on their sixth trip to the barn, Bruno whistled his distinctive whistle and all of the sudden Luna snapped out of it. Luna ran straight to Bruno. She was “crying and yipping the whole way,” said Julia. Luna jumped into Bruno’s arms and began licking his face. Luna happily returned home with the Furrers. She was welcomed home by the family’s other cattle dog, Zoe, and the Furrers two young twin girls. She had lost 15 pounds on her journey, but has already put back 10 of them.

Source: http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/10/dog-lost-for-four-months-recognizes-family-by-whistle

Sander, samoyed husky mix

Lovesick Dog Finds Owner in Hospital
ABC
Oct 5, 2012

As John Dolan lay in a hospital bed at the Good Samaritan Medical Center  in Islip, N.Y., last Thursday, he got a phone call he least expected.

A hospital employee, later identified as a man named Rick, told Dolan that he was standing outside the hospital with a white samoyed dog whose tag listed Dolan as the owner.  The man told Dolan he needed to come pick up the dog because he was late for work.

Dolan, 46, said the dog was indeed his, but he couldn’t come right away because he was inside the hospital and his wife was asleep at their home, two miles away.

It was then that the two men wondered, how did Zander get so close to Dolan’s bedside, so many miles from home?

“It’s not nonsense that he was at the hospital,” Dolan, resting at home with Zander by his side, told ABCNews.com today.  “He was moping around for the days I was already at the hospital, sitting in my seat and rolled up and depressed.  My wife said he had water in his eyes and looked like he was really sad.”

Zander is a 70-pound, approximately 7-year-old samoyed-husky mix that Dolan and his wife had rescued from a shelter five years ago who has a history of escaping.

Once Dolan reached his wife, Priscilla, they realized that Zander must have slipped out the back door of their Bay Shore home after Priscilla Dolan took their other two dogs, a red shepherd named Sheba and a chocolate lab named Penny, out earlier that morning.

Priscilla Dolan didn’t realize Zander was missing until she got her husband’s call for help.  She drove to the hospital to meet Rick and pick up Zander.

The Dolan’s home is two miles from the hospital, but a “hard two miles,” according to Dolan, that includes a stream, a highway and tricky navigation through neighborhood streets.

The hospital is also in a direction where Zander had never gone on his previous escapes.

“For all I know he was on his way to Jersey,” Dolan joked.  “He’s gotten out in the past, but never gone to that location or anywhere near it [the hospital].”

Dolan said that of the couple’s three dogs Zander, in particular, is known to stick by his owner’s side and has been even more loyal since his return.

He says an important lesson from his dog’s amazing journey is for dog owners to properly tag their pets so that all reunions can have the same happy endings as his and Zander’s.

“It’s a cool story and uplifting,” Dolan said of his own tale.  “Who knows how or why it happened.”

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/10/loyal-dog-leaves-new-york-home-seeks-out-sick-owner-in-hospital/