Bowzer, bassett hound

Bowzer the Bassett Hound
Lynn Miraglia
January 29, 2013

Bowzer the basset hound went missing from his home on January 14th. Sadly, this happened on the day that a family member succumbed to an ongoing illness, so the family was preoccupied and grieving that loss when Bowzer slipped out.

It’s hard enough to find a lost dog under the best of circumstances;to have it happen at a time like that provided the family with an even bigger challenge to find Bowzer than if it happened when they were not dealing with that death in the family.

As it turned out, Bowzer was quickly found by two women in a white truck, near his home the very same day he went missing. They spoke with a neighbor of the family and asked who the dog belonged to. The neighbor pointed to Bowzer’s home. They knocked on the front door, but of course no one was home.

The women took the dog to the county shelter to check for a microchip, and they reported the dog as found. They took the dog with them, which is common operating procedure at most animal shelters. Found dogs are sometime fostered by the finder rather than left at the shelter when they come to file a found dog report.

Bowzer is much loved by his family, and when they arrived home and found out that he was gone, they set out to find their friend and family member. On January 25th, they finally saw the Found Dog report on the BrevardLostPets.com website, and obtained the contact info for one of the women that had picked up the dog.

The family began calling the finder, and initially got no answer. They found her on Facebook, and messaged her with a photo of Bowzer. After letting the family know that she had indeed rescued a dog, and acknowledging that it was the same dog, she stated that the dog’s condition – dirty, long nails, etc – led her to decide to adopt him out to a good family to take care of him. She refused to reveal where Bowzer was, and after that, she no longer responded to any calls or emails.

The family wisely realized that this was a matter for the local police, and they filed a report. We don’t know the details on what the officer said or did, but he did get the information on Bowzer’s location from the finder.

On January 28th, two weeks after he went missing, Bowzer was brought back home by the officer. The case was closed within hours of contacting the police.

Thanks to Brevard Lost Pets for submitting this story and photo.