Serena, Staffordshire terrier

Mystery dog finder refuses $11k reward for Serena
Perthnow Staff Writers
April 04, 2013 1:56PM

MISSING dog Serena has been reunited with her owner after a $11,000 reward for her return was advertised.

Serena the dog with her owner Tiana Lehmann

A caller to 6PR Radio named Kim rang the station after she believed the dog had been dumped at her Rockingham home this morning, 55km from where she went missing.

"The dog that's been missing, I think it's turned up at my house," she told the station.

"The markings look very similar," she said.

The seven-month old Staffordshire terrier was reunited with her owner Tiana Lehmann after disappearing on Good Friday and, in an act of extraordinary kindness and goodwill, Kim has refused to accept the $11,000 reward for finding Serena.

"She doesn't want it, she doesn't want it at all," Ms Lehmann said.

"She's just happy that Serena is home."

Kim contacted 6PR after her calls to the Lehmann family went unanswered.

"I suppose with everyone trying to contact them, they're not responding," she said.

Her husband heard some noise outside their home, shortly after he arrived home from a night shift at midnight.

"As he got into bed, our dogs were going beserk... He heard a car outside and banging doors, so I think the dog might have been dumped," Kim said.

About two hours later, Serena had been reunited with the Lehmann family and the offer of $11,320 as a reward for the return of the dog was turned down.

Source: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/mystery-dog-finder-refuses-11k-reward-for-serena/story-fnhocxo3-1226612674257

Nick, retired police K9

After emotional search, Grand Forks family reunited with missing dog
Retired military canine suffers from health issues
By: Kevin Bonham, Forum News Service, INFORUM
March 26, 2013

GRAND FORKS – A local family was reunited with its lost pet German shepherd – a retired military police dog that suffers from a serious medical condition – here Tuesday after an emotional 21-hour search.

Nick the retired military dog

Nick, a retired military police dog, is shown with Master Sgt. David Crawley in Grand Forks. Special to Forum News Service

GRAND FORKS – A local family was reunited with its lost pet German shepherd – a retired military police dog that suffers from a serious medical condition – here Tuesday after an emotional 21-hour search.

Nick was found by a north-side resident who discovered the ailing animal lying outside his home and contacted the owners, Jen Maples and Master Sgt. David Crawley, an airman at Grand Forks Air Force Base.

“I’ve been in tears all day,” Maples said after bringing Nick home. “We’re so grateful that somebody cared enough to take him in.”

The nearly 10-year-old dog, who has served two tours overseas with the military and two tours with another federal agency, went missing at about 5 p.m. Monday from their home.

Nick suffers from a genetic condition and requires medication to ease the pain, especially in his hind legs, according to Maples.

“My biggest fear is that he’s lying somewhere and can’t get up,” she said Tuesday morning.

That fear turned out to be too close to reality, she said.

Gordy Linnell, who lives about seven blocks away, said he and his wife, Geri, saw the dog in his yard when they went outside to feed the birds near sunset Monday.

“You could tell he was good and healthy, a real polite dog, like he was taken care of,” Linnell said. “He wasn’t walking too bad then.”

Nick was still in the yard in the morning.

The Linnells fed him but didn’t know who to contact about their newfound companion.

Then, a neighbor said he received an alert on his iPhone about a news story on the missing dog that was posted online Tuesday morning.

Linnell then contacted Maples, who came over to retrieve their lost pet.

She said she had to lift the dog into their van.

“His legs are in pretty bad shape,” she said. “He must have done a lot of walking. Someone said they saw him by Darcy’s Cafe (about six blocks north) at about 5:30 p.m. yesterday.”

Maples said Nick was resting at home Tuesday afternoon and that a local veterinarian, who happens to be a family friend, planned to stop by to check him out.

“He’s hurting and not moving much, but we think he’s going to be all right,” she said.

“We’re just so grateful to everybody who helped,” she said. “We were afraid we were going to lose him, but now he’s back home.”

Source: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/394487/

Jewel, stolen dog

Man reunited with dog, 2 cats missing after Mishawaka burglary
By James Fillmore, WSBT-TV reporter
April 4, 2013

A couple in Mishawaka had their home burglarized Wednesday morning while they were away. A TV and computer were some of the items taken but the most valuable things missing were irreplaceable – the family pets: a dog and two cats.

Video Available

Yesterday, with the help of some nice workers at a nearby business, they got their dog back. Later one of their cats was found. And this morning the cat that remained missing came back home.

It was a long, emotional day for Junior Downer and his fiance Heather. Their home was in disarray from the burglary but all the two cared about was getting their beloved pets back.

As you walked through Junior Downer's home inside the Village Green Mobile Home Park in Mishawaka, you could tell it had been ransacked – The TV ripped from the wall, drawers pulled from out of the dresser and personal items covering the floor.

His dog Jewel along with two cats named Tex and Zoey were nowhere in sight.

Downer called Mishawaka police and filed a report.

“It was pretty heart-wrenching trying to tell the cop that, you know, my animals were gone,” he said. Especially my dog, she means a lot to me."

Little did Downer know that his dog was less than a quarter of a mile away.

Jewel had been running around 12th street when people working at Steamatic spotted her and took the dog inside.

"We've got a lot of dog lovers here in the office,” said Cindy Butt, an officer manager at the company.  “We all have animals of our own so we wouldn't want them out there."

Employees then logged on to Facebook and posted a picture of Jewel on WSBT's page in hopes of reuniting the lost dog with its owner."

 WSBT called Downer to see if the picture on our Facebook page was his dog and he confirmed it was Jewel.

Jewel and Downer were reunited Wednesday afternoon at Steamatic.

"Yeah, it stinks that my house was broken into, stuff was stolen, but as long as I've got my family – and she's a part of the family – that's what's most important," Downer says.

The office manager of Steamatic says Jewel was terrified and shivering from the cold when they found her. She did not appear to have any injuries.

Downer later his cat Tex, and around 2 a.m. Zoey came wandering back home.

Source: http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/wsbt-man-reunited-with-dog-cat-after-mishawaka-burglary-other-cat-still-missing-20130404,0,4380404.story?track=rss

Oban, whippet/shepherd mix

Dogged Pursuits: Tails from a Dog Rescuer
By Jim Branson for Seattle DogSpot
April 2, 2013

Dogged Pursuits is a new feature on Seattle DogSpot. Each week, Jim Branson from Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue will write a post about a search he conducted for a lost pet in the Puget Sound region with his dogs Kelsy, Porter, and Komu.

Oban before he went missing

I hope Jim's stories not only entertain you but also provide insight into the most effective ways for searching for/finding a lost pet.


Jim's first post is about the search for Oban, a dog he found over the weekend. Oban was lost for almost 2 months after escaping from a parked car in Bellevue on February 2.

We're excited about this new feature - please let us know of you like it.

Oban, a whippet-shepherd mix, went missing on February 2nd. He was playing, "You can't catch me," with his owner when he was struck by a car and ran off into the fog. Sporadic reports of Oban came in over the next two months.

When reports came in that he was seen very close to the accident site, I set up an "Intersection Alert" where several volunteers held up large neon posters about Oban's plight.

We received at least eight tips that afternoon. He had been seen ten blocks away, but he was seen most recently very near the intersection - 150th Ave SE and SE 37th Street - where the volunteers were standing.

Just before dark, someone pulled over and said they had just seen him on the off ramp from eastbound I-90 to 150th Ave SE. We went to check it out, but Oban slipped back into the woods before we could spot him.

A narrow strip of trees and brush grows between the off ramp and a tall retaining wall. Oban couldn't go south from there, and going east, west, or north would just put him on the freeway. I set up a humane trap in the woods at the end of the off ramp, but Oban didn't go in it the first day.

Many volunteers checked the trap every few hours, just in case any animal was trapped.

The next day, I moved the trap to a quieter area and someone put a couple of articles of clothing (belonging to Oban's owner, who was out of town) into the trap. They placed his favorite bed beside the trap.

As I was looking around the area to see how he might be getting around, I received a call that he had just been seen again poking his head out of the woods beside the off ramp. Knowing exactly where he was at that moment, I called for volunteers to help me keep an eye on the area and make sure he didn't leave.

We often use a "Magnet Dog" to lure a skittish dog to safety. My little dog, Fozzie, works sometimes. In this case, because Oban was so skittish and traumatized from the accident, I contacted his owner and learned of a dog named Sonia that Oban likes.

Kendra brought Sonia to the off ramp for the luring attempt. I told Kendra not to make eye contact with Oban or call his name, to focus her attention on Sonia and ignore Oban while giving Sonia treats. I also told Kendra that it would be better to not catch Oban today than to lunge for him and risk scaring him away to a new location.

Kendra walked Sonia down the shoulder of the road as cars whizzed by at 60 MPH. Kendra and Sonia made one pass back and forth along the strip of woods, one thousand feet down and one thousand feet back.

Nothing.

Kendra took Sonia for a second pass, and Oban popped out of the woods to see his friend and get some treats. He allowed Kendra to snap a leash on his collar with no trouble. Kendra rushed him to the nearby emergency vet, where Oban is staying overnight. He was very thin.

Oban when he was found after 2 months

When I called Oban's owner to tell her he was safe she screamed into the phone.

He needs more evaluation, but at this point it appears he will make a full recovery after being lost for two months. Many volunteers helped bring Oban to safety, including Irene, Krystina, Jacintha, Dina, Dori, Shawna, Julie, Lara, Sheri, Sam, Ilse, Kendra, Stephan, and Sonia the Vizsla.

Jim Branson is a certified Missing Animal Response Technician with four years of experience finding lost cats and dogs for Missing Pet Partnership.

Source: http://www.seattledogspot.com/blog/dog-blog/post/dogged-pursuits