Brownie, black dog

Brownie, Scared Off by Fireworks, is Found 9 Weeks Later

March 6th, 2013

Jim Branson is not your average guy. He’s a guy with a snappy snare, and a humane trap, and three dogs that each use their own special training to help find missing pets.

One of them, Kelsy, has been with him trailing the scent of missing pets for years. Fozzie is a magnet dog whose job is to be friendly and maybe invite another dog to play. That’s the long and short of Fozzie’s job. Komu was recently certified to find lost cats. Jim, who offers his services as Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue helps people find their missing pets, which means he helps pets in need.

On Wednesday, March 6^th, as Jim was driving home, he passed a black dog that was on her own, crossing the street just a few blocks from his home. Not one to leave an unattended dog even without being asked to help, Jim stopped. There was an espresso stand not far from where he saw the dog, so Jim asked the guy running the stand about the dog. The man answered that he had been noticing the dog hanging around for a week. No huge surprise if there were other consumable vendors in the area.

Jim formulated a quick plan. He went home and got his snappy snare, his humane trap, and his magnet dog, Fozzie. They got back to the spot as quickly as possible. But no worries, as the dog, who we now know as Brownie, was still hanging around the espresso stand.

His first attempt was to use Fozzie and the snappy snare. They walked back and forth, ignoring the dog, which is a tactic that commonly works. But this dog was having none of it. No matter, Jim just put Fozzie back in the car, and went to Plan B. He found a place to set up and bait the humane trap.

He gave the espresso guy his contact information, and left to let the trap and the bait do its job.

Two hours later, Jim got the call that the dog had gone in to the trap. He went right out to the trap to take care of the dog.

As you can see in the photo, she had tags on that Jim was easily enough able to check, and find where and with whom she belonged.

He took her home, which was about seven miles away from the spot she had been hanging around in. Her family said she had been missing for nine weeks, since January 1st when she was scared away by fireworks.

Brownie was very happy to be back home.

Good job, Jim!!!

Miley, sheltie

Dog Believed "Stolen" Reunited with Owner
By: Lauren Vargas, WKRG
Published: March 04, 2013

THEODORE, Alabama -- Lonnie Smith spent the weekend desperately searching for his best friend; a mini collie dog named Miley.

"Just an all-around good dog. You couldn't ask for a better dog," Smith cried. "I haven't been eating right, I haven't been sleeping. I've been worried sick, I don't know if she's okay."

Lonnie Smith adopted Miley about six years ago. They've been inseparable ever since.

"He's not been the same since it happened," said Smith's friend and neighbor Jennifer Fant. "He's been devastated. This is his child, it's not just a dog to him."

On Friday night, Lonnie Smith went inside the Circle K on Old Pascagoula Rd. and McDonald Rd. to buy a drink and some cigarettes. Like she always does, Miley waited outside the convenience store doors for her owner. But when Lonnie came back outside, his dog was gone.

The manager says the surveillance video shows two women taking the dog and driving off in a Lincoln town car. Lonnie Smith assumed she'd been stolen.

"I blame myself," said Smith. "I just never thought someone would steal a dog. I've never been through nothing like this."

But while we were shooting this story at the Circle K Monday morning, our "stolen dog" story took an unexpected twist. The women seen on the security cameras taking Miley showed up. They say they thought the dog was a stray.

"My daughter said, 'Mama can I take her home?' And I said sure, I'd rather see her go home with me than get hurt." The woman who found the dog did not want her name released.

So what started as a desperate search to find the dog thieves appears to have been a big misunderstanding, with a happy ending and reunion for Lonnie and Miley.

This story was sent to us by one of our Facebook Fans. If you have a story you'd like News 5 to cover, be sure to post your ideas on our WKRG Facebook Page.



Source: http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2013/mar/04/dog-believed-stolen-reunited-owner-ar-5727471/

Buddy, shih tzu

Officers reunite dog missing for nearly 2 years with owner
by Ryan O'Donnell
Posted on March 4, 2013

PHOENIX -- A little dog missing since May 2011 was reunited with his human mom Monday morning, all thanks to two members of the Phoenix Police Department.

“My heart was racing, and I just described him and they said that it's Buddy,” Jessica Rowe said as she cuddled Buddy in her arms. “My daughter [who was 3 at the time] is like a social butterfly to humans and animals and so it was really detrimental, almost like losing a sibling, for her; she cried a lot, a lot."

What's remarkable, is that Buddy, who has only one eye, has been missing for almost two years.

“We had a monsoon in Mesa and it flew open my townhome gate while we were at work and Buddy ran away,” Rowe explained.

She did everything she could to find Buddy, but nothing came of it.

When weeks turned to months, it was hard for Rowe and her family not to fear the worst. Then, a couple of days ago, they got a surprise call from Phoenix police.

On Friday, a black and white Pekingese darted out of an apartment complex and into the side of a police car.

“That's when I heard this really horrible sound as if a large stone or some object hit the driver side of my patrol vehicle, looked out the rear view and saw the dog down on the road,” Officer Don Martin with Phoenix Police said.

Martin and another kind-hearted officer wrapped up the dog, took him to a vet and even paid the medical bill.

The vet discovered that Buddy had a microchip. That's what led officers to Rowe.

“Dirty little secret, we all like being police officers, because of moments like this make a difference; this is what you live for,” Martin said, watching Buddy and Rowe..

“They told me when I got down there that Officer Martin had paid the bill so Buddy could come home, so, in that, that is awesome. That's really cool,” Rowe said.

Martin said a citizen found Buddy about a week ago and had been caring for him until the little dog ran off and collided with his cruiser. It's not clear where Buddy had been before that.



Source: http://www.azfamily.com/news/Missing-dog-of-almost-2-years-returned-to-owner-194947711.html

Alki

Alki’s Story

Nancy Heller

February 27, 2013

Alki went missing on a Monday night when she was let out to pee, which was her normal routine.  Tonia went out looking for her immediately, looking up and down the street for her since she always came right back.  She ran into a group of raccoons a few houses down and decided that they must have scared Alki. 

Alki and Tonia

When I saw the flyers for Alki, I pulled over and got the phone number, and called to offer help with the search. As it turns out, Tonia lives 2 blocks from me. Her husband is on a job out of state, she has a 3 year old daughter, and she's doing a teaching internship.  Boy, was she open to help!!!  She was over within 15 minutes with her daughter and a friend who was helping look for her dog.

I was on my lunch break at the time, so I spoke with them briefly about their next steps and went back to work.  They went home, made up a bunch of posters, went out to post them and to blanket the area where Alki was last seen with flyers door-to-door.

Tonia and I talked regularly, and one day when she had gotten out of school and I was on a break, she brought her car over and we tagged both of our cars.  She called in her friends, called in sick and literally spent hours going door-to-door with flyers (daughter in a backpack) and putting up posters.  And an intersection alert was in the plans.

The first call that came in was from a runner who had seen Alki several blocks from home that night (and kept on running - what's that about?).  That got us headed in the right direction.  Tonia put posters in each direction from the intersection at which she was last seen.

While out knocking on doors, Tonia ran into a woman who reported seeing Alki at her bus stop that morning. That took us several more blocks with posters and flyers. Suddenly we got a few sightings all from the same little cul-de-sac.  Tonia immediately went and put up posters in the cul-de-sac,  knocked on doors, met neighbors and left her address with a few people.

Then came 2½ very long days of silence.  We got a sighting from a very different location, and although it seemed improbable, we felt we couldn't ignore it. So I went over to Tonia's and we started making more posters. 

We were both working away when we heard a little, faint dog whine. We both froze and yelled, "Did you hear that?" We scattered out opposite doors of her house, scouring the yard and the alley behind her home. Nothing!  I had to leave a short time after this.

My home is 2 blocks from Tonia's and while I was still en route, she called me crying and yelling "Alki's home!!!....She's here!!!"  After a few minutes of sharing her joy, I asked if that was what we had heard. "Where was she?"  

"You're not going to believe this.....she was in the bathroom!"  

What followed were 24 hours of Tonia and her friends all brainstorming how and when Alki could have gotten closed in the bathroom without them seeing her.  The next day, Tonia found a message on her phone that had come in the day Alki had mysteriously appeared in the bathroom but that she had somehow missed in all of the excitement.

A man who lived in the cul-de-sac with all the sightings had picked up Alki and, to keep her safe (everyone down there warned us of the resident pack of coyotes) had taken her with him. But he went to visit his aging mother out on one of the nearby islands.

When he returned to his neighborhood, he saw all of our posters. He talked with his neighbors, and got Tonia's address from one of them. He drove to Alki's home, and  finding no one home, he boldly tried all of the doors and found the back door unlocked. He slipped Alki into the bathroom and left Tonia the  message on her phone that she didn't get right away.

I guess you just never know where you might find the pet you're searching for!  But I DO know that we couldn't have done it without the posters!!! And Tonia's incredible persistence.