Jazzy, golden retriever

Dog reunited with owners in 'Christmas miracle'
Kate Ryan, wtop.com
December 28, 2010

Andi Vanko found this Golden Retriever dashing in and out of traffic on Route 140.

WASHINGTON - Andi Vanko starts her mornings with a prayer: "I say, 'Please don't let me see a little stray on the side of the road.'" Because if Vanko sees one, she'll stop for it. And that's exactly what happened on Christmas Day.

She, her boyfriend and her mom were in the car driving along Route 140 in Carroll County when she saw it - a little Golden Retriever dashing in and out of traffic. Vanko and her boyfriend were chatting and laughing while her mom slept in the back seat.

"I started screaming and he says the next thing he knows, we're flying across the turn lane and two lanes of traffic." Vanko got out of the car and called to the little dog.

"And she came bounding to me and jumped on me like, 'Please! Help me!'" Vanko says. Vanko hustled the dog into her already-full car, and drove on to her sister's house for Christmas dinner. When she got there, she explained the situation. Soft hearts seem to run in the family.

Her sister had one question: "Does she bite?" When Vanko told her no, she added "Okay, let's get a leash. Bring her in, we'll feed her."

They checked her collar and found three tags, one with the word "GRREAT" on it. Vanko thought that was odd.

"I looked at her and I said "GRREAT! What a funny name for you!'"

GRREAT wasn't the dog's name. It was an acronym for Golden Retriever Rescue Education And Training.

A call to the organization was returned quickly: The dog had been microchipped, the GRREAT volunteer was able to crosscheck a database and within hours, the dog's owners were on the way to pick up their wayward pup "Jazzy."

Vanko says a couple from Silver Spring had been in the area for a hike when Jazzy bolted and took off. They had no luck trying to catch her.

Vanko says she could see why. When she stopped to get the dog, two men approached the dog and she initially thought they were the owners. Like, her, they stopped to try to catch the dog, who had been dodging traffic on Route 140 for about 15 minutes when Vanko stopped.

Vanko says that's one reason she says that little prayer each morning.

"For some reason, stray animals have always been drawn to me."

When the dog's owners showed up, Vanko was thrilled for them, but admits she was a bit sad. She lost her own dog about a year and a half ago and had already given the dog a new name, "Holly."

"She spent the day with us and she was the perfect little creature! And I thought, I hope no one calls me back about this little dog!" But being able to reunite the dog with her owners was its own reward.

"When she saw her daddy, she was over the moon. And they were so thankful. They gave me a big, big hug. It was like a little Christmas miracle."

GRREAT is a local rescue group that offers all kinds of help and advice to those looking for a dog, and those who feel they have to surrender their dogs.

Source: http://www.wtop.com/?sid=2214992&nid=25
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Ella, chocolate lab

A Cautionary Tal
SAllen's Corner
30 Dec

A cautionary tale, my friends. (“Tale”? or”Tail”? No – “Tale”!)

Please – ALWAYS be sure to have your pet wear up-to-date ID tags.

Hubby and I were walking across Central Park the other day. We were doing our normal dog observing, when I spotted a leashless dog walking beside a gentleman. When they neared us I asked the man “Is that your dog?” and he shrugged helplessly and said “No”.

Hubby and I petted the dog, who was a Brown Lab with a very gray muzzle and tremble-dy legs. A VERY sweet dog wearing a Christmas collar with no tags. We led the dog to a nearby park bench and sat with it while hubby dialed 311 (NYC help line) – hoping to reach someone within the park.

Meanwhile, a jogger stopped and asked us about the dog. When we told her the tale, she said that she would continue jogging and would be on the lookout for anyone who appeared to be anxiously hunting for their stray beast.

Then a park ranger drove by and we flagged her down.

In my mind I was already working out how we’d take doggy home (certain our cat Sammy and Dog would get along famously!), run off some quick flyers and come back to the park to distribute. I knew whoever would put a holiday collar on their dog would not have knowingly abandoned it.

But as we’re working out details between hubby and myself, the ranger and the 311 attendee, the jogger came back into view shouting that she met someone who was helping someone else look for her missing dog.

Next, the other woman came into view. This lady had her dog on a leash and explained how she had just met someone across the park who was frantically searching for her lost dog, Ella – an 11-year-old Lab. Ella!

We all hugged, and with tears running down not just a few cheeks, with “Happy Holidays” and “Thank you so much” to the jogger and the park ranger, the dog walker put her leash on Ella and we crossed the park with both dogs in tow, searching for the rightful owner.

The dog walker said that she had spoken with the owner a half-hour earlier – didn’t get her name or number – so we were hopeful that she would still be nearby.

Before long we saw the frantic woman and we called out to her. She turned to us and began to sprint towards us. The dog walker removed her leash from Ella’s collar and Ella began running to her mistress. It was just like a slow-motion scene in a movie! The lovers (I mean, the dog and human) met in each other’s arms (I mean – oh, you know what I mean!) and happily everyone was reunited and thrilled about it. Again, hugs and thank yous were passed around, and more hugs.

The distraught owned said that she had just that morning put the holiday collar on Ella, leaving the ID tags on the old collar – and Ella had slipped away.

We gave Ella one more hug and sniffled as they turned to go home. We were so happy that Ella and her mom had found each other, so very happy that so many New Yorkers cared about Ella, yet just a tiny, smidgen sad that Sammy would never know Ella.

Source: http://sallanscorner.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/a-cautionary-tale/

Simba, husky

After missing for 13 years, Simba the dog returns to SC family
By Andrew Dys, heraldonline.com
Posted: Friday, May. 14, 2010

Sunni Baker, 10, kneels with her grandparents' Siberian husky, Simba, at their home in Richburg on Thursday. Owners Terry and Blaine Horne said that Simba disappeared 13 years ago and returned home recently.

RICHBURG, SC Terry and Blaine Horne had to go to a church meeting 13 years ago this summer on a beautiful hot evening.

"It was still daylight, and we could hear Simba out in the back, running and howling like Husky dogs howl," Terry said. "Huskies, they don't bark. It is more like a howl."

Simba was their beautiful, less than a year old, red-coated Siberian Husky with the ice-blue eyes.

Blaine paid $100 for Simba when the dog was just a pup.

That night, the Hornes left their Richburg home in rural Chester County and went to church.

They came home, and Simba, with a tag around his neck that identified him as having shots at a certain place, with an ID number, was gone.

"Vanished," said Blaine Horne.

Heartbroken, the Hornes looked all over for Simba. They checked with neighbors, to no avail. Days, weeks, they looked.

"Just gone," said Terry's son, Chip. "I had a husky once that was stolen, so we figured somebody grabbed him."

Blaine said his wife was inconsolable and never gave up hope.

"She kept thinking somebody would find him," Blaine said.

Terry said sometimes, late at night, she would think to herself, "Keep looking. Simba will turn up."

About a year ago, the Hornes got another dog, a little Shi-Tzu named Bebe. Every morning, Bebe had to go outside to do what dogs do outside.

About three weeks ago, on a Tuesday morning, Blaine let Bebe out on the way to work at his auto body shop behind his home. A few minutes later, Terry called Bebe to come in.

She looked outside, and there in the grass, rolling in the morning dew, was the skinniest, sorriest looking excuse for a dog that might have once been red anybody ever saw.

Terry's throat constricted.

"The dog was limping, and hungry and thirsty, so I gave it water and called Blaine to ask if I should feed it, and I asked him, 'Do you think it could be Simba?'" Terry recalled.

Blaine said he almost dropped the phone and came rushing out to see for himself.

This dog, clearly old, back leg limping, close to skin and bones and covered with fleas, walked right up on the deck and sat in its old spot.

"Just like Simba used to," Blaine said.

The dog then walked to the carport, circled a few times, and lay down.

"Just like Simba used to," Terry said.

"It made me think he was penned up all these years, somewhere, and just couldn't get home. Then he got loose, or somebody let him loose, and he just came home like nothing happened."

The Hornes took the dog to a veterinarian, who said it was possible that the dog was Simba. It was about the same age, but there was no identification.

The dog was given shots and wormed, and it came back to the Horne house.

The dog immediately took a shine to Sunni, the Horne's granddaughter, who lives next door.

The two have been inseparable ever since.

"I think it is Simba," said Sunni. "I play with him and pet on him. It is like he knows me."

Even though Sunni wasn't even born when Simba vanished 13 years ago.

Blaine Horne says it sure could be Simba, but Terry Horne says there is no doubt.

Their daughter, a fourth-grade teacher at Westminster Catawba Christian School in Rock Hill, polled her class. Each kid said it was Simba.

"A miracle," Terry Horne said. "Like the movies. 'Homeward Bound,' think it was. The dog comes home."

So now most afternoons Simba waits for Sunni to get home from school.

He sits in a dirt patch and on the deck and in the carport, just like the old days.

Then Simba follows Sunni everywhere she goes.

When it rains, Simba rolls in the grass like Simba did 13 years ago.

Is it the same dog that vanished 13 years ago?

"If you believe it, it is Simba," said 10-year-old Sunni. "I say so. I believe. This is Simba."


Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/14/1435023/after-missing-for-13-years-simba.html

Zeta, Australian shepherd

Ramona dog reunited with owner after 5 months on its own
Dixie Pettit
Published 12/10/2010 - 1:08 p.m.
Dogs: 2, Coyotes: 0

That’s the score in the Cavender household.

When his father died last May, David Cavender brought his father’s three dogs home to live with him in San Diego Country Estates. “L.G.” is a basset Hound, “Zeta” an Australian shepherd, and “Doofus” a 30-inch tall but not big, long-legged mutt.

Ramona is surrounded by family adn EARs volunteers

Within a week, the gate was left open. Doofus and Zeta walked out for a romp in the neighborhood.

A devastated Cavender flooded the neighborhood with posters.

“My son and I posted signs up on the mailboxes, at the equestrian center, at the Country Store,” he said. “I made calls to all the animal shelters – you know – San Diego, Escondido – I called everyone I could think of. Nothing. After a couple of weeks of trying to find them every day, I just figured the coyotes got them.”

Five weeks later, Cavender saw a flier about a “found” dog. Someone had found Doofus near the International Equestrian Center.

“I concentrated my search over there, hoping to find Zeta, but I couldn’t find her,” said Cavendar.
Again it was assumed that Zeta was a victim of coyotes or, if lucky, “had been picked up by someone who had simply decided to keep her.”

Zeta, like other family pets in the Estates, disappeared without a trace. As time went by, the signs came down. Cavender could only return to work and the two dogs who remained.

Martha Fredericks walks every morning with her dog by the equestrian center. It was during her daily walks that she noticed “kind of a shadow” in the bushes.

“I saw just little glimpses of her,” said Fredericks. “I wasn’t even sure she was a dog when I first saw her,. She blended well into the bushes. I started seeing her early October. She came out of the bushes a couple of times and walked ahead of me about a hundred yards. She had tags and was obviously somebody’s dog. She was real nervous and kept looking back at me but wouldn’t let me get close to her. I put kibble out and something kept eating it, but she was so very skinny that I don’t think she would have lasted much longer.

“That one weekend when it was so hot I got really worried about her. I tried to find her with one of my daughters. We looked all over the bushes for her, but we just couldn’t find her. My other daughter (Anne Mueller) thought of craigslist. She looked there to see if a dog was missing but then placed an ad. That was how we found Laura.”

A volunteer for Emergency Animal Rescue (EAR), Laura Bedinger looks under the pet section on craigslist every day.

“We (EAR) have the equipment, experience, and the willingness to go out and help animals out of dangerous situations,” she said. “I do this on my own. I help to rehabilitate animals, rescue other abandoned animals, and then find homes for them.This girl, Anne Mueller, was asking for help. Animal control wouldn’t help, so I set a trap up for her (using a cheeseburger) but didn’t catch her until the second night when I threw some oatmeal cookies into the trap.”

Bedinger spent hours watching and waiting for the elusive dog.

“She was obviously terrified out there, but she had tags. She was emaciated and had lost about half of her body weight, but I knew someone didn’t just abandon this little girl — someone had to be missing her.”

The 2007 tags were from an Apple Valley hospital, but the telephone number had been disconnected. After several phone calls, Bedinger spoke with an employee from the animal control in Apple Valley.

“Animal control said there was another address in Ramona listed as a forwarding address, but they wouldn’t give me the address or phone number. They said they would try to call the person and get back to me.”

After a week and no word, Bedinger called again, this time able to convince the worker from animal control to keep making calls until she was able to get in touch with the person.

Cavender was at work when he got the call from animal control at Apple Valley.

“Do you have a dog with a strange name you’ve been missing?” said the voice on the phone.

“I said ‘Zeta,’ and they said ‘Yeah, somebody found her!’ I couldn’t believe they found my dog. I kept saying, ‘I can’t believe she’s still alive!’ My dad passed away in May and she has been missing since the first week in June!”

Less than a mile away the whole time, Zeta was brought back to Cavender after five months missing.

“It is amazing. They never gave up looking for me,” said Cavender.

“She probably got lost and didn’t know how to get back home, so set herself up in the bushes and tried to survive on her own,” said Bedinger. “Dogs that have to fend for themselves begin to turn feral (wild) in order to survive. When I first got her out of the trap, she tried to nip at me. She was really scared. Emaciated and full of burrs and worms, Bea Hoskins (volunteer) worked with her a lot, so she would trust people again.”

Gone since the first week in June, Zeta is a proven survivor. Though unclear how much longer she could have made it on her own, the little Australian shepherd beat the odds. The high-desert heat and cold fall nights took a toll on her, but coyotes did not claim this girl.

Bright-eyed and happy to be home, Zeta and Doofus are buddies once again. As the pair bounce around the patio together, “L.G.” rolls over for a belly-rub.

An overwhelming happiness courses through the air. Rescuers with misty eyes, dogs oblivious to anything but the moment, and owners know this is one of those times when things are as it should be.

“This just shows you shouldn’t give up,” said Bedinger. “You just never know.”

Source: http://www.ramonasentinel.com/article/News/News/Ramona_dog_reunited_with_owner_after_5_months_on_its_own/21213