Molly, Miniature Poodle

Sweet story here. Well, it has a nasty neighbor early in the story. I love how little Molly's mom surprised the boy with Molly's return. Enjoy the story.


Trucker Helps Return Lucky Pup to Her Anxious Family
By Jessica Farrish/Register-Herald Reporter
7-6-2004

Molly's journey home from Sandstone Mountain is a fairy tale from nose to tail.

The miniature poodle tunneled out of her backyard, got tossed into a shed, was abandoned at a gas station, dodged busy interstate traffic, befriended a kind truck driver, got rescued and joyously returned to her favorite person - 13-year-old Corey Lilly of Shady Spring.

"It is quite a story," remarked Molly's owner and "mom," Janie Lilly. " Just because of everything else that's been going on in the world that's so depressing, this is just to show the good in people. It was truly a miracle. I cannot believe that we got her back."

Molly's saga began June 11 when Lilly left for work and Corey put the puppy in the backyard to play. Pushing her nose through a loose spot, Molly wriggled out of her own backyard and into the yard of a neighbor in The Oaks, a subdivision just off Interstate 64 in Raleigh County. When Molly didn't answer Corey's call to come back inside, the teen rode his bike through the neighborhood, looking for her.

A group of men working nearby told Corey a man who had recently moved into The Oaks had carried a little dog to where they working earlier that morning and had asked if she belonged to one of them. When they said no, he reportedly "grabbed Molly by her neck and then threw her into an outdoor storage shed connected to his house," the workers told Lilly. Frantic, Corey rode home and called his mom at her Glade Springs office. Corey tried to talk to the neighbor who allegedly took the dog, but he wouldn't come out, Lilly said.

By the time she found his residence, the man had already left for a camping trip. Lilly left a message at the campground for the man to call her, and when the phone rang later that day, the family hoped it meant good news. Instead, the man told them Molly had scared his little girl and that he'd driven the dog to a gas station near The Oaks and put the dog out of his truck.

While Lilly was searching for Molly, Donnie Blackburn of Ronceverte was underneath his tractor-trailer at the brake check area on Sandstone Mountain adjusting his brakes when a tug on his pants leg caused him to rise up suddenly and bump his head. The Greenbrier County trucker slid out from under the rig and saw "this little dog that just jumped on my leg. I brought it home; my wife gave it a bath," Blackburn said. "I wasn't going to leave it out there to get run over."

The Blackburns called the foundling "Little Bit" because she was just a "little bit of a dog" and - much to the dismay of their own indoor dog - they decided to keep Little Bit at their house over the weekend. They decided to wait until Monday to take her to the Greenbrier County animal shelter in Lewisburg.

Meanwhile, neighbors at The Oaks banded together and put up missing dog posters around the neighborhood. "Everybody went out looking for her," Lilly said. "A lot of people helped us out. They were wonderful."

The first big tip about Molly's whereabouts seemed dreadful: A man told Lilly Molly had been near the Bragg exit on I-64 on Friday morning - where vehicles whiz by at 70 miles per hour. Lilly began to doubt she would ever see the beloved pet again, but she posted a picture of Molly at the Sandstone Mountain brake check station, near the Bragg exit, that afternoon.

Monday morning, Blackburn rolled into the brake check station with Little Bit sitting beside him and spotted a missing dog poster. The face was definitely familiar.

"Molly was the name on the poster," he recalled. "I turned to Little Bit and called her 'Molly.' Immediately, her little ears perked up, and that little tail started wagging."

Lilly was at work when she received Blackburn's call at 7 a.m. saying he'd found Molly." As soon as I started pulling in the Texaco, I could see the trucker," Lilly said. "He was kind of a tough, rugged, 18-wheeler driver, and he was holding Molly up close to his face."

Corey wasn't out of bed yet when Lilly sneaked Molly into the house." I hadn't told him about Blackburn calling because I was afraid to give him false hope if the dog wasn't Molly," she said.

"I took her home and opened the door and let her run upstairs." Molly headed straight to Corey's room and jumped on his bed, waking him up with "kisses" to his face."I don't know who was more excited - Molly or Corey," Lilly said. "Neither one could have been happier

Source: WV Pet Pages - http://www.wvpetpages.com/raleigh_county_news.htm