Chad, on Log Island

After Xway dash, wayward pooch reunited with Staten Island family
-- Contributed by Maura Yates, Posted eadanna
June 02, 2008 17:15PM

Chad is reunited with Margaret Sawicka and her daughters Karolina, 11, and Weronika, 2.

A Fort Wadsworth family was reunited with their wayward dog today at the Center for Animal Care and Control in Charleston, where the pooch was brought after it was caught taking a stroll on the Staten Island Expressway last week.

They arrived just in time, as the dog was scheduled to be sent to an animal rescue group in New Jersey tonight, to be adopted.

Turns out "Manilito," so named by staffers at the animal shelter, is actually named "Chad," and he is partly blind, which explains his dangerous wrong turn onto the busy highway.

The dog's tale began on Thursday when he escaped from the Sawicka family's yard. He wandered onto the nearby Fingerboard Road on-ramp and onto the busy highway, where he was spotted by Officer Paul Werner of Highway 5.

Werner chased the dog for more than a quarter of a mile before Chad grew tired and jumped into the back of Werner's car and was taken to the pound.

Meanwhile, a heartbroken Karolina Sawicka, 11, canvassed her neighborhood with flyers with Chad's picture and contact information.

A neighbor who saw a front page article and photo of Chad in the Advance on Friday realized the two were a match and called the family, who had not seen the paper, on Sunday.

Today at the CACC, Karolina, her mother Margaret, and sister, Weronika, 2, were all smiles during a reunion with the speckled-nosed Chad, whom they call "Ciapek," a Polish word that means "spots."

"Usually he's in the yard. I don't know how he got out," Mrs. Sawicka said.

Comments

Great news. Can the people in Rossville who also just found their dog now please take down the 700 flyers they have plastered all over the south shore.
Posted on 06/02/08 at 10:59PM

Source: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/after_xway_dash_wayward_pooch.html

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