Riko, miniature pinscher

Recent Find Toto Success Stories: Riko - Maryland
told by Kim Leaty, in Glenarden MD
Lost 7/13/2011, Alert 7/18/2011, Found 7/18/2011
 

I can not thank FINDTOTO.COM and the honest neighborhood citizen enough times that called me in helping bring our Riko back home!!!

I had just got done confirming with Krislyn from FINDTOTO.COM of the text to be sent out, her email was timestamped 5:10pm ET that she was going to send out shortly and wishing me best of luck.

5:14pm ET I received a phone call from a gentleman stating he received the alert on his way out the house and had noticed his neighbor with a new dog that they recently just got and the dog fit my description.

I went to the police and asked for an escort to the house. As soon as I heard the dog bark as the police office knocked on the door, I KNEW it was our Riko!!!!

The officer asked if the dog was the lady's who answered the dog, and she stated 'no'. Her mother then came to the door and explained how her son brought the dog home after he was found wandering in the rain and he thought he was abandoned.

Riko had a collar on and is well trained. The lady told me I could have the dog food they bought for him, I told her no thanks.

They had my dog for 5 days and did not report him found to the SPCA, to any animal shelter or police. While I believe this family that had Riko took good care of him for the 5 days he was missing and am thankful for the care and that he was not abused or mistreated, I still also believe at the same time they had no intentions on trying to find his owner, otherwise they would have contacted the appropriate authorities when they found him, 5 days ago!

THANK YOU TO FINDTOTO.COM and "the neighbor" for all of your help!!!

I think the 4 min response time, from when alert was sent out to accurate lead phone call to owner, must be an all-time record for FINDTOTO.COM!

THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Source: http://www.findtoto.com/?action=success_stories_detail&id=5951

Charlie, white dog

Barefoot Walkabout Brings Lost Dog Home
Life with Dogs
Apr 21 2011

A five day search that led to no sign of her lost dog Charlie prompted Annika Schlemm’s mother to think outside the box – leading to a unusual solution that eventually brought her wandering friend home.
The 15 year old school girl feared she would never see her seven year old terrier again. She and her family put up posters and spent days scouring the countryside to no avail. As the fifth day of searching turned up no result, Annika’s mother Marie-Louise came up with an unusual if brilliant suggestion.

She told Annika to walk in areas where Charlie had last been sighted, and to walk home from there – while barefoot. She reasoned that Charlie would have a better chance of picking up a scent without shoes to get in the way, and that he might just follow the scent trail home.

Annika obliged, spending hours wandering the countryside, foot paths and country roads of a nearby town before making the five mile walk home, feet battered by her journey, a sore ankle acting up.

“Annoyingly I stepped in some nettles and one of my ankles really hurt, so at times I would hobble and limp down this country lane, probably looking extremely odd,” she said. “The thought that this was for Charlie and that this could finally get him home kept me going.”

Her determination paid off. The following day encouraging calls came in mentioning Charlie sightings in town. She went to bed that night exhausted after another day spent searching and yelling for Charlie repeatedly.

“The next morning, a week after he went missing, I woke up before my alarm and an impossible miracle happened. My dad opened the door and in tiptoed Charlie, with his tail wagging. He had got in through the cat flap. I gave him lots of cuddles and I must confess tears were in my eyes. I was just so happy. We haven’t lived in our house very long so I’m sure he wouldn’t have known the way home unless he had followed the scent trail.”

A creative act of love and desperation has reunited the family, who say they are now keeping a very close eye on the beloved dog they adopted from a shelter more than six years ago.

Source: http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2011/04/barefoot-walkabout-brings-lost-dog-home/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LifeWithDogs+%28Life+With+Dogs%29

Bandit, blue heeler

Family Finds Lost Dog Missing it's Tail
By KGNS News
February 22, 2011

New tonight at ten, a Laredo family is excited to be re-united with their dog after five days of him going missing. The story of how he was found is one of a guess and a little good luck. Our Ryan Bailey has more.

The Martinez family is once again complete after their dog bandit went missing last Friday afternoon.

"He's trained but he jumped off and by the time my husband got back he was gone and when he went and claimed it, the people said they had seen somebody take it."

Employees at an O'Reilly Auto Parts store told Martinez they had seen the vehicle pull away. Armed with a little info, Martinez was able to deduce the general vicinity where the dog may be. He and his wife searched on Saturday but came up empty, until he went back today.

"Luckily he went again today and sure enough that hunch was right."

The father was able to find bandit on a ranch, but not everything was the same on the family's prized dog. In an effort to change his appearance the men had chopped off the dog's tail.

"When my husband said that he had found him, he told me what they had done. Of course we were heartbroken because that was the feature we liked, that he had his tail."

Tail or not, the Martinez kids are very happy to have their bandit back.

"I was worried that if we didn't get him back I would never see him again."

"Maybe they could have hurt him with animal cruelty like they did with his tail. I’m just happy he's back."

And it took them no time to put him to back to work, learning new tricks.

"We're training him to do Frisbee."

Ryan Bailey, Laredo’s pro 8 news.

The Martinez family has filed a police report in this matter and they have been told that L.P.D. does take these cases very seriously. According to the family, Police say they have seen a rise in pet thefts recently and they have a unit dedicated to investigating these kinds of cases. The family is planning on taking the blue heeler to the vet tomorrow to make sure he is still healthy, as well as getting micro chips inserted in both their dogs.

Source: http://www.pro8news.com/news/Family-Finds-Lost-Dog-Missing-its-Tail-116709169.html
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Maizey, yellow lab

Lost dog reunited with owners thanks to good samaritans
By Maria Lindsay
11/18/2010 - South Side Leader

Jesse Carvill and his daughter Avery are shown after being reunited with their dog Maizey, who was lost for about five days. The dog was found by Quick Clean Car and Pet Wash owners Paul and Linda Doerr, who took Maizey in and put signs in front of the business in an effort to find her owners.

GREEN — A lost-dog story has ended well for one Green family, thanks to a little luck and a dog lover who happened to find the pooch.

Paul and Linda Doerr, owners of Quick Clean Car and Pet Wash Store, found an older female yellow Labrador wandering on Ashwood Road Oct. 20 at about 9 p.m.

“We are dog lovers and we could not turn our backs on one wandering around, so we took her in,” said Paul Doerr, adding that he and his wife own two Labradors — a yellow one and a chocolate one.

Paul Doerr said someone had come to his home earlier in the day looking for the owner of the dog and had apparently let her loose when they failed to find its owners.

Doerr said the dog was well fed and cared for, but she had no collar, just a red “shock collar” worn by pets contained by an electric fence.

“Someone cared enough to keep her contained, but she was dirty as if she had been running through a stream,” he said.

The Doerrs washed and cleaned her at their business.

“My wife wanted to call her Daisy,” said Paul Doerr.

Paul Doerr said he and his wife called three veterinarians in Green to see if anyone had reported her lost and to find out if the dog had an identifying microchip but were unsuccessful in identifying the owners.

He decided to put large signs about the dog in front of the business, which is located at the corner of Mayfair and Massillon roads.

“Our pet groomers at the business wanted to adopt her, but we decided to give it some time,” said Doerr. “The owner apparently was on Craig’s List and saw notes about the dog posted at our business.”

Owner Jesse Carvill contacted Paul Doerr Oct. 25, and soon the dog, which actually was named Maizey, was reunited with him and his young daughter Avery, who live about half a mile down the street from where the dog was found.

“When they were reunited, the dog perked right up and was overjoyed to see her owners,” said Paul Doerr.

Paul Doerr said Carvill told him he had been having problems with his electric fence, and the dog somehow got out.

Carvill could not be reached for comment by presstime.

“They were lucky. This was one of the few good-ending stories,” said Paul Doerr. “It emphasizes the need for why dogs should have a microchip or wear a collar with a license or identification tag at all times so it can be identified when it goes missing.”

Source: http://www.akron.com/pages.asp?aID=10859

Boomer, JRT

Hunter returns missing dog to family
Michael A. Sawyers, Cumberland Times-News
December 24, 2009

FROSTBURG — For the Dolchan family, Christmas came early, on Dec. 22, when their blind, 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Boomer, was returned to them after spending five nights on Big Savage Mountain, surviving one of the worst snow storms in anybody’s memory.

Fourteen-year-old Boomer, a Jack Russell terrier, is pictured with his family, Tyler, Liam, Katie, Bill, and Madison Dolchan Wednesday evening after he was found after being lost during last weekend’s snowstorm. The dog is blind.

“We let him out to pee like we always do,” said Katie Dolchan. “It was 5:15 p.m. Dec. 17.”

Katie’s husband, Bill, said Boomer’s routine is to do his business, return to the garage and bark, whereupon the door to warmth and love is opened and Boomer re-enters for pets from the Dolchan kids, Tyler, Madison and Liam.

This time there was no barking. This time there was no Boomer. Bill readily admits that this time there was panic.

“Tyler and I started looking and couldn’t find a trace of him. For three hours we searched, driving around using a spotlight. I’m sure people thought we were trying to spotlight deer.”

Katie, who was summoned from one of her children’s activities, figured a coyote had gotten the Jack Russell. “We could hear coyotes on the mountain as we searched,” she said.

As the days wore on, Katie said Liam, 4, would say his regular prayers at night and then add “Please, God, watch over my lost doggie, Boomer.” A prayer request went forth from Emmanuel United Methodist Church, the Dolchan’s house of worship on Pocahontas Road. The prayer was realistic, according to Katie, asking anybody who had knowledge of Boomer, either dead or alive, to contact the family.

Bill said he figured that Boomer, with the family since puppyhood, was a goner.

“A lot of people have told me that old dogs wander away to die,” Bill said. “And maybe they are right, but I didn’t want that for Boomer. I want him to die in my arms when the time comes, not out on a cold mountain.”

That option remains open.

When Santa arrived at the Dolchan residence on Frostburg Road on Tuesday, it wasn’t Kris Kringle in a sled but Donnie Shingler in his pickup truck.

“They sure were happy to get their dog back,” Shingler said later in an understatement that vies for world-record status.

On Tuesday, Shingler was using his muzzleloader to hunt deer about three-quarters of a mile and uphill from the Dolchan residence.

“It’s a place I’ve hunted all my life,” said the Eckhart resident. “It was about 4 p.m. and I hadn’t even seen any tracks so I was walking out when I looked off to the side and saw something stick its head up out of the snow.”

That something was Boomer.

Shingler said he walked 25 feet through the deep snow and could see that Boomer had been in that one spot throughout the major weekend snowstorm. “He moved a little when I got to him, but it was easy to pick him up.

Shortly thereafter, Boomer was in Shingler’s pickup truck and was eating a deer bologna sandwich. “He wolfed it down,” Shingler said. Shingler, by the way, has a Jack Russell terrier of his own, a 6-year-old male named Hubble.

Shingler took Boomer to Eckhart and called his friend Dan Cutter.

Voila. Cutter happened to be a member of Emmanuel United Methodist Church and had heard the prayer request for a lost and blind family pet.

Bill Dolchan remembers his drive home Tuesday. “When I got to our driveway Tyler was running toward me carrying Boomer’s blanket and he told me Boomer was on the way home,” Bill said.

Boomer is home now. He has a little frostbite injury on his nose. He has even been allowed up on the couch, a former no-no. And, so much for privacy, he never gets to pee alone.

Source:  http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_358140156.html
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Sadie

This dog's mom told her story in the local newspaper by way of a letter to an editor. I think this is a great way to thank the community for help in looking for a lost dog. Enjoy the story.

Happy ending to a lost-dog story
Tanya Palma, a resident of Spotswood
Guest Column

On the evening of Sept. 20, I was out in the yard with our dog, Sadie, when a large branch crashed onto our neighbor’s metal shed. The noise scared our timid Sadie, and she took off running.

As she ran through some of the streets behind our home, other people, dogs and noises scared her even more. After we searched for her for hours, our neighbors, the Gagnons, helped us make fliers and get some of them up as quickly as possible.

Every day that passed I would be around town putting up more fliers, whether I was driving around with our 6-month-old son, Brendan, or out alone on my bicycle. I spoke to all the kennels, shelters, veterinarians, animal control officers and regular officers that I could find to spread the word.

Each day, I talked to more of our community members, who were all very concerned. There are a lot of wonderful people in our neighborhood. There were some people who would call me after seeing the fliers, or stop me while I was putting them up, just to express concern.

After 5 1/2 heartbreaking days, I was starting to lose hope when I received a call from a girl saying she was sure she had seen Sadie in Heather Glen the previous night. With renewed hope, I went and put up more fliers (the flier count was now more than 400) in and around Heather Glen. While there, I had two residents stop and tell me they had also seen Sadie around the complex.

That night, the sixth night our pet had been missing, my husband, Bob, and I took the baby after dark in his stroller to Heather Glen and walked around, calling Sadie and shaking her food bowl.

As we reached the far exit of the complex and were trying to decide where to look next or if we should give up, we received a call from a girl named Patricia who had just returned home to Heather Glen and who had seen a dog run out of the woods and then back in near the playground. Patricia ran to find our nearest flier and called us immediately.

Bob took off, running to get back to the playground area, while Patricia went back to where she had spotted the dog to try and call Sadie out of the woods. When the baby and I caught up a few minutes later, Bob had Sadie in his arms, and he and Patricia were trying to wrestle the harness onto Sadie, who was so excited to see us that she couldn’t keep still.

I would like to thank everyone who was concerned for us — our family, friends, neighbors, mailmen, crossing guards, the whole community, everyone who called and was concerned.

Thank you especially to the girl who called Sunday morning, for prompting me to put up more fliers inside Heather Glen; to the people who cared enough to stop and tell me they’d seen Sadie there, prompting me to take the family for a walk there that evening; and to Patricia, for calling right away.

Thank you, everyone for helping to give us a happy ending and returning Sadie safely home.

Source: http://ems.gmnews.com/news/2004/1012/Editorials/