Romeo, Nova Scotia dock tolling retriever

Dog lost in wild found 66 days later
Owner was told 15-year-old pet could not survive
John Moritz
Tuesday, 16 Oct 2012


AUSTIN (KXAN) - After 3 1/2 days criss-crossing the mountainous trails of Hyde Memorial State Park near Santa Fe, N.M., in search of his dog, Austin businessman Mike Stotts decided he had to accept what park rangers and fellow campers had been telling him:

That no 15-year-old house dog with diminished hearing could survive that long without food or water among the coyotes and mid-August heat.

So Stotts, owner of HomePlace Apartments in North Austin, found two pine branches and fashioned a cross. Then he gathered up several large rocks on the side of a mountain in the park, planted the cross and called it Romeo's grave.

"I didn't want to picture him torn apart by coyotes just laying out there," Stotts said, who adopted the golden Nova Scotia duck-tolling retriever as a 12-week-old stray from Town Lake Animal Shelter in July 1997. "I wanted to remember him up on the mountain, looking down at all of the scenery."

Still grieving 66 days after saying goodbye to the dog that went with him everywhere, Stotts was at home Monday morning when he got a call from the dog-chipping company that implanted the identifying device in Romeo. He was told that his dog was alive, rescued by a Santa Fe man who had found him emaciated and injured not far from the primitive park in the Santa Fe National Forest.

The man and his wife had taken to the dog to a local veterinary clinic, which ran the chip that led Romeo to his owner. Tests showed that Romeo had lost about one-third of his body weight and had developed anemia. One of his ears had been ripped.

"I couldn't believe it," Stotts said Tuesday as he and his friend Colleen Ford had crossed into New Mexico on their way to meet the couple and reunite with Romeo. After the reunion later in the day, Stotts said by phone that Romeo was thinner, more tired -- but glad to see the man who he must have been searching for since August.

"He was like, 'Where were you? Why did you leave me?'" Stotts said. "If anyone was expecting him to be all kissy-face, that was never him. But I know he was glad to see me."

Stotts and Romeo had been camping in the primitive park on Aug. 14 when Romeo apparently worked his way through a tent flap in the middle of the night. When Stotts noticed Romeo had left, he began a predawn search that would take him across every hiking trail in the park.

He expanded his search to nearby neighborhoods, tacking up signs with Romeo's photo and offering a reward.

No luck.

Stotts said he told his story to anyone who would listen. Campers he never met joined the search. So did off-duty park rangers.

Again, so sign of Romeo. Or any signs that a house dog had tangled with a coyote or another predator.

"Everybody told me that coyotes were a real problem out there," Stotts said. "There were stories about them going after Lab-sized dogs on leashes. A little 33-pound dog wouldn't have a chance."

So reluctantly, he headed home.

But he was fortunate that Eli Madrid was heading for work near the park a little before daylight on Monday.

"This little dog caught my headlights, so I stopped," Madrid said by phone from Santa Fe. "I like dogs. I have two of my own. This one looked like it needed my help."

So Madrid stopped and the dog came to him. Madrid could tell the dog was tired, hurt and hungry. And he still had a collar, which carried a tag saying he had been chipped.

Madrid got the dog into his car and called his wife, Jamie. They took the dog to the vet to be checked out and to see if the chip was active. It was.


"I guess the lesson here," said Stotts, "is that it pays to have your dog chipped."

Source: http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/dog-lost-in-wild-found-66-days-later

Luna, Australian cattle dog

Dog Lost for Four Months Recognizes Family by Whistle
Life With Dogs
October 12, 2012


Luna, an Australian cattle dog, escaped out of her family’s yard on Mother’s Day this year. It took four months and the help of craigslist before she was reunited with her family again. Her owner’s whistle is what made her feel home again.

On Mother’s Day, Luna escaped through the white picket fence leaving her Colorado home. A neighbor noticed Luna wandering and tried to get her back home, but Luna ran away. Julia and Bruno Furrer placed an ad for their lost dog. A few days later they received a call from a woman in Perry Park, about 12 miles north of their Palmer Lake home. The woman had called animal control to help catch Luna, but once again Luna ran off. The Furrer’s followed the lead hoping Luna would still be in the area, “We went there a few times a day and searched and searched,” Julia said.

The Furrers continued to search for Luna, filing a lost dog report with the Humane Society and placing an ad on craigslist. The search started to slow though as the summer went on.  On Labor Day they finally got another lead on Luna.

The Furrers received a phone call from the Humane Society that another craigslist ad had been placed for a found dog in the Perry Park area. The ad had been placed by Victor Wilcox and Shelley Tailer. They had spotted Luna near a vacant farm. “We saw her at the side of the road,” Wilcox said. “She kind of looked hungry. She was very thin and it was really hot out.” When Wilcox tried to approach Luna she did her routine of running away, but this time she ran into the barn.

Wilcox placed the ad on craigslist and within an hour received responses linking the lost dog with Luna and the Furrers. Upon hearing the news, the Furrers headed up to the barn and met Wilcox. They had found their dog, but Luna looked at the Furrers as if they were strangers. She turned and walked away from them. The Furrers spent two days coming back over and over to the barn to try to get their dog back. “Bruno and Julia never gave up,” Wilcox said. “They were so patient to try to get her back and make sure she knew who they were. It had to be heartbreaking for them.”

Finally on their sixth trip to the barn, Bruno whistled his distinctive whistle and all of the sudden Luna snapped out of it. Luna ran straight to Bruno. She was “crying and yipping the whole way,” said Julia. Luna jumped into Bruno’s arms and began licking his face. Luna happily returned home with the Furrers. She was welcomed home by the family’s other cattle dog, Zoe, and the Furrers two young twin girls. She had lost 15 pounds on her journey, but has already put back 10 of them.

Source: http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/10/dog-lost-for-four-months-recognizes-family-by-whistle

Sander, samoyed husky mix

Lovesick Dog Finds Owner in Hospital
ABC
Oct 5, 2012

As John Dolan lay in a hospital bed at the Good Samaritan Medical Center  in Islip, N.Y., last Thursday, he got a phone call he least expected.

A hospital employee, later identified as a man named Rick, told Dolan that he was standing outside the hospital with a white samoyed dog whose tag listed Dolan as the owner.  The man told Dolan he needed to come pick up the dog because he was late for work.

Dolan, 46, said the dog was indeed his, but he couldn’t come right away because he was inside the hospital and his wife was asleep at their home, two miles away.

It was then that the two men wondered, how did Zander get so close to Dolan’s bedside, so many miles from home?

“It’s not nonsense that he was at the hospital,” Dolan, resting at home with Zander by his side, told ABCNews.com today.  “He was moping around for the days I was already at the hospital, sitting in my seat and rolled up and depressed.  My wife said he had water in his eyes and looked like he was really sad.”

Zander is a 70-pound, approximately 7-year-old samoyed-husky mix that Dolan and his wife had rescued from a shelter five years ago who has a history of escaping.

Once Dolan reached his wife, Priscilla, they realized that Zander must have slipped out the back door of their Bay Shore home after Priscilla Dolan took their other two dogs, a red shepherd named Sheba and a chocolate lab named Penny, out earlier that morning.

Priscilla Dolan didn’t realize Zander was missing until she got her husband’s call for help.  She drove to the hospital to meet Rick and pick up Zander.

The Dolan’s home is two miles from the hospital, but a “hard two miles,” according to Dolan, that includes a stream, a highway and tricky navigation through neighborhood streets.

The hospital is also in a direction where Zander had never gone on his previous escapes.

“For all I know he was on his way to Jersey,” Dolan joked.  “He’s gotten out in the past, but never gone to that location or anywhere near it [the hospital].”

Dolan said that of the couple’s three dogs Zander, in particular, is known to stick by his owner’s side and has been even more loyal since his return.

He says an important lesson from his dog’s amazing journey is for dog owners to properly tag their pets so that all reunions can have the same happy endings as his and Zander’s.

“It’s a cool story and uplifting,” Dolan said of his own tale.  “Who knows how or why it happened.”

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/10/loyal-dog-leaves-new-york-home-seeks-out-sick-owner-in-hospital/

Cassey, border collie mix

Missing Dog Reunited with Family After Four Years
By Eliza Murphy
Sep 19, 2012

Four years ago when Brandy Metcalf, of Wake Forest, N.C., was pregnant with her third child, she and her husband Dave decided they should make some adjustments in the household to make more room for the new baby.

So they reluctantly came up with the idea to allow Brandy’s sister, Chelsee, to dogsit their beloved border collie mix, Cassey, in Charlotte, N.C. while they had a newborn crawling around the house.

Video Available

The dogsitting idea turned into a four year odyssey for Cassey and what seems like a miracle for the Metcalfs.

“We just had our third child and we live in a small three bedroom, so it was close quarters with baby stuff. We were just trying to give the newborn the attention she needs,” Metcalf told ABC News. “My sister was living alone in Charlotte and she’s not good at being alone and she’s known Cassey, so she got a roommate while we got past the newborn stage.”

Metcalf said she called her sister every couple of weeks to check in on Cassey until her sister told her to calm down and reassured her dog was doing just fine in her new, temporary home.

So Metcalf  let a few months pass without visiting the dog. It wasn’t until six months later that she drove to Charlotte to see Cassey.

“I get there and open the car door and poor Cassey didn’t coming running to the car door like she normally does,” Metcalf said.

Right away, Metcalf knew something wasn’t right. Her sister told her she had some upsetting news, but didn’t have the guts to tell her earlier.

“There was a lot going on at the house one day. Cassey is very intuitive about big noises and is very sensitive when it comes to sounds. Something startled her,” and Cassey had bolted, Metcalf said.

They searched for Cassey for several days, but weren’t having any luck.

“It being in a different city I felt like I really had no hope, no chance of being able to find her. She’s such a wonderful animal with a great personality. I knew if anyone new came in contact with her, they’d want to keep her,” said Metcalf.

As more time passed without any sign of the dog, the Metcalf family tried to move on to fill the void Cassey had left.

“If we didn’t think about it, maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much. So we really tried to bring in other animals to take up the love we had for her. We’ve had guinea pigs, cats and everything else. But it never seemed the right animal fit,” Metcalf said.

Even four years later, Metcalf’s children would still mention Cassey, saying they’d do anything to have the dog back.

Then on Sept. 11, the family received a phone call that someone had found Cassey.

“Of course we couldn’t believe that. We were so used to thinking that couldn’t possibly be our dog,” said Metcalf.

But as soon as the family was  in touch with Cheryl and Scott Smith, the Charlotte, N.C., couple who had taken Cassey under their wing three days earlier, they knew they had finally found their long-lost pooch.

“We gave scars and descriptions to confirm it was really her. We didn’t hesitate, we were on the road the next day,” Metcalf said.

Cassey had lost seven pounds, had no collar and was covered in fleas, Metcalf said.

Elated at the news, the Metcalfs couldn’t be more thankful to the Smith’s for taking good care of her, and being persistent enough to track down the original owners.

“Once they spent a little time with her they knew she had come from a family. You could just tell. So they started taking her to the dog parks in Charlotte, taking her to the vet,” Metcalf said.

The Smith’s refused to leave the vet until Cassey’s entire body was scanned for a microchip. They knew the friendly dog must have been chipped as a puppy, and was convinced it was on her somewhere. And they were right. The chip had migrated from the normal spot behind the neck, down under ribs.

Although the microchip’s information was 11 years outdated from when the puppy was chipped at the Wake County SPCA, the Smith’s were able to track down the correct information.

“I bent down and said ‘Cassey girl’ and she came right over to us. She knows exactly where she is now. She goes right to her same spot. I mean she has not changed any of those aspects,” Metcalf said. “This house, the tears that were falling in this house, all of us were just in disbelief. The Smith’s are such wonderful people. Something we cared about so much came back to us.”

Source: http://www.dogmail.co.uk/missing4years

See also: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205211/Heartwarming-moment-dog-reunited-family-FOUR-YEARS-went-missing.html