Koda

Dog reunited with family thanks to help from strangers
Reported by: Marisa Yamane
Story Published: 12/28/2012

An Ewa Beach family who lost their dog in October is overwhelmed by the support they received after pleading for help.

The family also says they learned some valuable lessons from this.

Most dog owners feel their dogs are part of their family.

That's certainly how the Wards of Ewa Beach feel about their dogs -- Koda on the left, and Kai on the right.

But two months ago, Koda ran away from home.

"We never stopped looking. We posted ads on Craigslist at least three times a week," said Ashley Ward, Koda's owner.

Then last month, Ashley got a call from a woman in Kaneohe.

"Basically she called me and said hey look I have your dog, I want you to know he's alive, but he's mine and you're never going to see him again. We were so heartbroken because we finally found him, we just cried for days," said Ashley Ward.

Turns out, Koda ended up at the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Ashley says Koda has a microchip but the owner on file is the person they got Koda from, and that person didn't know how to get in touch with the Wards and surrendered ownership.

"Legally when she adopted him and passed that 30 day mark, he was hers," said Ashley Ward.

Then this past Saturday, Ashley got a call from the woman.

"I just answered my phone, thought it was a family member calling, and she said I've decided to give him back if you can pay me $700 for what i've spent on him. In October, Humane Society had adoptions for $10. She said she spent all this on vet records," said Ashley Ward.

Ashley made another plea for help online, and within a day, the Wards had raised the $700 needed to get Koda back -- and most of the donors were complete strangers.

And now, Koda is back home with the Wards.

"And we woke up the night we got him home, we woke up at 2 in the morning because we heard something downstairs, and my 5 year old was asleep on him. And we woke her up and asked what she was doing and she said she had to make sure he was still there. She said it was her christmas miracle and we couldn't have asked for a better gift," said Ashley Ward.

Ashley says she did learn from this experience about the importance of having your dog microchipped, and having the records updated.

Also, she learned that City law requires all dogs have and wear a county-issued license tag, which identifies you as the legal owner.

"As soon as we got Koda back, we got that done. Overall, it's a happy ending. The kids couldn't be happier, we couldn't be happier," said Ashley Ward.

And, Kai also couldn't be happier.

"Kai is overwhelmed to have his best friend back," said Ashley Ward.

Source: http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/Dog-reunited-with-family-thanks-to-help-from/TnsCKaiaJU6Ddfhyt5zllw.cspx

Abby, blind dog

Blind dog lost in storm reunited with owners
Source: AP
27 Dec 2012

A blind dog that became lost in a snowstorm in Alaska has found its way home in what its owners are calling a Christmas miracle.

Abby, an eight-year-old mixed breed dog, went missing on Dec 13 in bad weather in the town of Fairbanks.

While her owners assumed they would never see the dog again, it survived temperatures of -40C and travelled 10 miles before being taken in by a local vet.

"It's a miracle, there's no other words to describe it," said McKenzie Grapengeter, Abby's owner. "We never expected to have her to be returned safe and alive."

Musher and vet Mark May said he came across the dog while running his team on Dec 19, but didn't stop to pick it up.

"It ran with us for about a mile on the way home before she fell off the pace, but I had a big dog team so I couldn't grab it," he said. "I said, 'boy I hope it finds somebody's house.'"

The next day, the dog turned up at Mr May's house.

"Everybody just assumed it was some kind of scaredy-cat, but there it was in front of the door in our dog lot and it was blind," Mr May said. "It was sitting there, all the way from 14 mile on the winter trail down into this neighborhood, I guess by just sniffing, so I picked it up and brought it in."

To Mr May's surprise, the dog had no signs of frostbite.

"No frozen ears, no frozen toes, she'll probably go back home and it'll (be) business as usual. She's no worse for wear but quite an adventure," he said.

The Grapengeter family hadn't tagged or put a microchip in the dog, but the community used social media to track down Abby's owners.

"We're so, so grateful for all (the community's) hard work," McKenzie Grapengeter said. "They've given us the most amazing Christmas gift we could ever ask for."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9766860/Blind-dog-lost-in-storm-reunited-with-owners.html

Ralph, shepherd lab mix

Maryland Couple Reunited With Dog Adopted From Egypt
By Benjamin R Freed
December 26, 2012

A Germantown, Md. couple got a very nice Christmas Day surprise when workers at Dulles International Airport recovered a dog the couple had brought over from Egypt but ran off as soon as he arrived two weeks ago.

The dog, a German shepherd-Labrador mix named Ralph, was brought over from the streets of Egypt (eat your heart out, Tom Friedman) on December 12. But while his new owner, David Scott was loading Ralph into the car for the ride to his new home, the dog got loose and bolted across the Dulles parking lots.

Scott told NBC4 that his wife first encountered Ralph while visiting friends in Egypt who had been caring for the pooch, but because that family could not care for the Ralph, the Scotts went about trying to adopt him. It took six months of paperwork and waiting for a chaperone before Ralph could be flown to the United States.

But the dog survived his two weeks in the Northern Virginia wilderness, and was found yesterday morning back at the airport thanks to a trap set by Dulles employees. "REUNITED! DULLES RESCUE DOG FOUND TODAY!" blared a posting on a Facebook page that tracks lost dogs in the D.C. area.

The Scotts were reunited with Ralph some time yesterday, according to the posting. The trap used to capture the wayward dog was described as "humane."

UPDATE, 1 p.m.: Kimberly Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, says it was airport police who found Ralph on Christmas morning.

Officers conducted a brief search the day the dog went missing, but there was no ongoing coordinated effort to find Ralph . The dog was found without any identifying tags, but was reconnected with its owners after matching a description.

But just how did Ralph survive on Dulles' 12,000-acre campus? Scott obtained a trap from a local humane society, left it in the parking lot and routinely filled it with food, as he would check back occasionally and find that Ralph—or possibly some other animal—had eaten it without being captured. On Tuesday morning, though, Dulles police officers positioned a dish of dog food in a position that could trigger the trap, and Ralph was caught in about an hour, Gibbs says.

"Very smart dog," she adds

Source: http://dcist.com/2012/12/md_couple_reunited_with_dog_adopted.php

Marley, Cavalier King Charles

Stolen Dog Returned to Heartbroken Girl on Christmas
By Russell Goldman
Dec 26, 2012

A heartbroken 7-year-old girl's Christmas wish came true when New York City cops nabbed the Grinch that stole her dog and a good Samaritan helped reunite her with the missing pooch.

On Christmas Day, a beaming Mia Bendray, 7, wrapped her arms around Marley, the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, who had been brazenly unleashed and taken from outside a shop in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood on Christmas Eve. The theft was caught on tape and police provided the video to news outlets.

"Thank you, the people of Washington Heights… Those great Samaritans… And now we got him on Christmas Day," Mia's mother Angie Estrada told WABC-TV.

The dog was rescued by Tina Cohen, a high school Spanish teacher, who came across a man on Monday in another section of Manhattan standing on a street corner and yelling that he had a dog for sale.

"I said that's not right. I said I'd like to buy the dog. I only have $100," Cohen said.

When the man demanded more cash, Cohen said she went to a nearby Staples and bought merchandise she then returned for cash. She bought Marley for $200 and quickly took the dog to the veterinarian that treats her own dogs.

In the meantime, other bystanders called the cops, who soon collared the alleged dognapper Brad Bacon, 29. Bacon appears to have been caught on video taking the dog on Monday.

He has not yet been arraigned. Authorities did not know if he had obtained a lawyer.

Cohen's vet was able to track down Marley's owner from a microchip implanted in the dog's skin and with help from an animal rescue group that had learned about the stolen pup.

On Tuesday when Cohen watched Marley jump into Mia's arms, she said: "You guys belong together. I'm so happy you are together."

"That was the worst thing, there was a Grinch that was live and about in New York," the girls' mom said. "The Grinch didn't win today."


 

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-reunited-stolen-dog-christmas/story?id=18066479