Penny, Boston terrier

Piedmont Family Reunited With Lost Pet
Michael Konopasek, News9
Posted: May 31, 2011 11:09 PM EDT
Updated: Jun 01, 2011 11:10 AM EDT

PIEDMONT, Oklahoma -- One week ago Tuesday, tornadoes tore apart some Oklahoma families.

Even amid the destruction, one family near Piedmont never gave up hope they'd be reunited with their lost loved one.

The Evans family home is no longer standing. Thankfully, they were not home when Tuesday's tornadoes plowed through, but one special member of the family was and until today the search for her never stopped.

"I can't believe it," said Dennis Evans, tornado victim who found his dog. "It's amazing. I just can't believe she's in such good shape."

Tuesday was a day to rejoice for Evans after finding his Boston Terrier who had been lost for seven days. And although she is just a dog, to Evans she is a member of the family.

Last Tuesday, shortly after a tornado ripped through the Piedmont area, Evans returned to nothing but a foundation and debris with no dog in sight.

Ever since that moment, for ten hours a day, the search was on, to find Penny!



After a week, many people may have given up, but not the Evans family. Seven days after the tornado hit, someone spotted the spirited black dog.

For Penny and her owner it was joyous occasion. And, although Penny has some ticks after her journey in the wild, Evans says she is doing remarkably well.

Penny and her family are, of course, enjoying each other's company. On the agenda for Wednesday is a visit to the vet's office to get those ticks taken care of.

Source: http://www.newson6.com/story/14773947/piedmont-family-reunited-with-lost-pet?

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Marty, Katan/Cavalier King Charles

Dog Found Thanks to Community’s Help
By Wendy Edwards
Published: May 25, 2011

When Suzan Roberts told the community her beloved dog went missing, hundreds of people attempted to help find him. Roberts, beset by the grief of having lost the Katan/Cavalier King Charles mix she calls Marty, was overwhelmed by the generosity of those living in and around Fluvanna.

Marty has been found and the owner is grateful to a community that came together in many ways to look for the lost dog.

“It was just amazing when I would talk to people,” says Marty’s owner. “One gentleman I was talking to sent [word of the missing dog] on his iPhone right then and there.”

Marty went missing on a Sunday afternoon.

“I was out playing with him and my older dog and he slipped down in the woods, which is nothing unusual,” Roberts says. “I came around to help my dad with something,” then when she looked around for Marty, “he was gone. He may have had a seizure (the dog is diagnosed with Epilepsy) or may have gotten unfocused and I think he just got totally confused and he bolted.”

Roberts, her husband, Gary, and father, Roger Cyr, spent hours searching to no avail, looking in the woods, driving up and down the driveway, hollering for the dog who “usually comes running when he hears us.”

Together, the family checked along Route 53 near the Lake campground, where they were told a lady tried to catch [the dog], “but he bolted back into the woods. She said he was scared.”

By five in the morning Monday, Roberts was in front of her computer making fliers about her lost dog. “By six, I was at the Lake campground posting fliers.” Within a few hours, everyone in the vicinity of Routes 53 and 618 could see Marty’s picture and learn about his plight.

“It was totally amazing how the community came together to support this little guy,” Roberts says. “My husband gave a flier to one of his coworkers whose child saw the $200 reward, said ‘Dad, is that for real?’ And then out the door he went!’”

Pizza delivery drivers and Fluvanna school bus drivers joined Marty’s neighborhood friends and family in the search by keeping fliers on hand and helped to spread the news that he was missing. Even the Lake Monticello gatekeepers did what they could. “Every day we went to the Lake, they let us in.”

Roberts’ brother, Damon Cyr of Charlottesville, could not join in the search, but that did not prevent him from contributing to Marty’s rescue.

“He hired an online service called LostMyDoggie.com and they flooded the area with over 1,200 phone calls and sent out notices to 100 veterinarians and shelters in the area,” Roberts says.

By Tuesday, news of Marty’s disappearance was all over Facebook and Twitter. “And my phone started ringing!” People that had seen Marty were calling in, helping Roberts piece-together his trail.

Then came call she was waiting for. “Marty was found at a barn at Ash Lawn, a little over eight miles from our house.”

Apparently, the tired dog approached a caretaker who was thoughtful enough to share a little bit of his lunch. “I do not know how he managed to catch [the dog] but he did and he took him home,” Roberts says. “He even let Marty sleep with him.”

Thankfully, an associate that works in the Ash Lawn-Highland gift shop had seen one of Roberts’ fliers. “So, they found our number and called the house and spoke with my Dad.” Thirty minutes later, Marty was identified and brought home.

Because the dog experienced a number of seizures while he was away, Roberts and her family saw to his medical treatment first and foremost. They will be keeping an even closer eye on him from now on.

“We are looking into a GPS tracking collar,” she says.

As for everyone who helped share pictures of Marty and did their best to get him home, she says: “Thank you all for what you did. For the ones that helped hand out flyers, the online postings, Facebook … everything that you did made the difference in saving this little guy’s life and bringing him back home. The emotions are still running wild with me; I am so happy. You cannot see me, but right now I have tears of joy in my eyes.”

Source: http://www.mydailyprogress.com/ruralvirginian/index.php/news/article/dog_found_thanks_to_communitys_help/40489/

Max, chihuahua

Lost Dog Rescued by Another Dog Returns Home to Joyful Family
By Linda Chion Kenney
Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Max, a standard Chihuahua, returns home to the Rodriguez family after being rescued by another dog and its owner at a retention pond behind Mann Middle School in Brandon. Max’s three-night plight leads to a reconsideration of collars and microchipping.

Jerry Rodriguez,with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Nicole, has a tearful reunion with Max. This picture was taken moments after Rodriguez came home May 29 to see his dog safe at home after Max went missing for three nights, lost in the neighborhood.

When the call came, Karen Rodriguez rushed out of her Brandon home and drove three blocks to meet the good Samaritan who called her husband on a cell phone and said she thought she had found the Rodriguez family dog.

“I don’t even remember what the woman looks like, I was crying so hard,” Rodriguez said. “And when I told her husband about the reward money, he said, ‘No, ma’am, you just take that money and get the dog to the vet.”

Max, the four-year-old standard Chihuahua, who likes to sleep tucked between a pillow and its pillowcase, was found May 29 behind Mann Middle School, stuck behind a chain-link fence that separated ground from retention pond.

Turns out it was a dog named Coco, acquired by her family eight years ago from a rescue organization for Australian Shepherds, who discovered Max “all huddled up in a little ball” under tall blades of grass, according to Coco’s owner, Kathleen Gridley.

“We almost didn’t walk down there today,” Gridley said in an interview the day Max was found. “It was hot and I gave Coco some water and I said, ‘Let’s give it a try.’ "

The route took them to the end of Larson Avenue, off Parsons Avenue, behind Mann Middle School, to a fenced-in retention pond. There, Coco typically would sit in the grass and watch the ducks.

But on this day, Gridley said, “she just keyed in along the fence and followed it to the end where we saw [Max] rolled up into a ball."

“I think [Coco] realized [Max] shouldn’t have been there and that he needed a little taking care of,” Gridley said. "Coco and I sat down and they touched noses. We sat with him and I called my husband to run down to the corner and get the phone number."

That would be the phone number printed on flyers that the Rodriguez family hung around town, asking for help in finding Max.

When Rodriguez found Max, sans collar and having never been micro-chipped, wagging his tale furiously at her, she burst into tears. Even now, back at home, the emotions take over.

“He looks real good and we’re just thrilled beyond words,” Rodriguez said.

Missing since May 25, Max is home with Rodriguez and her husband, Jerry, and their daughter, Nicole, a ninth-grader at Foundation Christian High School, who reportedly fell in love with Max when she first saw him.

The family got Max from the same woman who had provided them with Midnight, the family’s other pet, an eight-year-old long-haired Chihuahua mix.

“It was a fluke conversation with them, that we were looking for a companion for Midnight, and they said they had one,” Rodriguez said.

Apparently, it was a fluke, too, that Max would venture out alone, let alone go missing for days.

“Because we had not seen any evidence of him being hit by a car, we felt like someone had taken him in, and that maybe we would get him back,” Rodriguez said. "Unfortunately, he did not have his collar on him. And we didn’t microchip him because it didn’t help us when we had a dog stolen 10 years ago. And he never goes out on a leash because he only goes out in the backyard and never unsupervised.”

So it was odd when Rodriguez and her husband first noticed that Max had not been in the room with them, under feet somewhere, sitting on the couch next to somebody, as the night unfolded May 25.

“We couldn’t find him in the house anywhere,” Karen Rodriguez said. “He wouldn’t go outside without us. He wouldn’t even do his business without us. Jerry, I think, slept one hour that night. He walked and walked and he drove and drove throughout the neighborhood, calling him, and looking out for Max.”

An announcement was posted on Brandon Patch and on Facebook. Notice was placed on Craigslist and in the Tampa Tribune. Flyers were photocopied and distributed throughout the neighborhood and signs were tacked at Petsmart, Petco, and other pet stores, as well as at area veterinarians.

The Rodriguez family took a trip to Hillsborough County Animal Services on Falkenburg Road on May 27, wondering if Max had been taken to the shelter.

“A lot of prayers went out, I’m telling you,” Karen Rodriguez said. “A lot of prayers.”

And now?

“Oh, it’s such a relief,” Rodriguez said. “When you commit to having a pet you make a lifelong commitment to that pet and they become a lifelong member of your family. And when they’re not there and you don’t have a clue where they are? It’s very unnerving. There’s no words to describe it. I am just so happy inside and so at peace that he is back home with us.”

Rodriguez said Max and Midnight both will be wearing collars from now on and microchip implants for pet identification are a possibility.

But one thing she most definitely is going to do, and she recommends that every pet owner take heed as well:

“When you think you’re going to go out, even for just a second, make sure that door is closed tight,” Rodriguez said. “It only takes a second for a pet to dash outside.”

Video at http://brandon.patch.com/articles/lost-dog-found-by-rescue-dog-returns-home-to-joyful-family-video#photo-6313975

Source: http://brandon.patch.com/articles/lost-dog-found-by-rescue-dog-returns-home-to-joyful-family-video

Border Collie in McLean VA

Border Collie in McLean Reunited With Family
May 30, 2011

This picture was taken by the person that found this dog,
and posted to Facebook. The people that lost the dog
posted an ad without his picture but with his breed.

Debra's goal is to keep dogs out of shelters, however she can do it. She chooses to focus on helping people find their lost dogs, knowing that this would mean that some of those dogs would never end up in shelters.

To that end, she established a Facebook page devoted to promoting lost and found dogs in the Washington DC metro area. She has devoted much time to getting the page known to local people, posting notices, following up, and dispensing tips and advice. To get it started, and still, this involves finding existing ads and re-posting the info to the Facebook page -- such as from Fido  Finder, Pets911, Craigslist, Oliver Alert and more.Once the page became known, individual people who have lost their dogs post to the page, so many of the postings originate that way.

On Saturday, May 28th, someone found a black & white dog wandering near her McLean VA home.  She turned to Facebook, and found the page that Debra administers. She smartly took and uploaded a photo of the dog she found on the notice she posted to the page.

Meanwhile, the family that lost the dog must have received the by now is age-old: post to Craigslist. They either didn't have a photo handy, didn't know how to upload it, or otherwise posted their ad with no photo. But fortunately, their dog is a border collie, so it helped to name that identifiable breed in the Craigslist ad.

Not long afterwards, Kate, who volunteers for a rescue in the area, was for some reason looking on both the Facebook page and on Craigslist, and realized that the found dog in picture could be a border collie. Since both the family's lost dog and the woman poster's found dog were in McLean, it was easy to figure that it was the same dog. She commented to that effect on the Facebook page.

Debra posted a link back to the Facebook page on Craigslist. The border collie's people found that ad, and found their dog -- the same day he was lost! - through the combination of the Craigslist and Facebook ads.

Long live Craigslist and Facebook!

Source:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=226988883978666&set=pu.215700451774176&type=1&theater