Mockie, chihuahua mix

Pet and his “pet mom” reunited after 4 years, thanks to microchip

by Pima County News

on Nov. 07, 2013

Wednesday, November 6 was any normal day for Bianca Beltran – until she opened a letter in the mail from Pima Animal Care Center.

“I opened the note and I just screamed and sat on the floor I was so surprised,” said Beltran, who drove immediately over to the shelter at 4000 N. Silverbell Road to pick up Mockie, the dog she had lost four years earlier.

Thanks to a microchip, Bianca was reunited with the family pet she’d had for more than two years until the active little dog escaped from her granddaughter at the park. She searched the shelters for months and always watched for him at the park until finally she gave up. “I always prayed that someone had him and he was being treated well,” she said.

But recently the dog, known as Nido, had been turned in by a woman who had suffered a personal setback and could no longer keep the dog she had gotten from a friend. But when animal care staff scanned the Chihuahua mix for a microchip, they found the chip and reached out to his original owner.

Beltran and volunteers who helped are convinced Mockie remembered her, and when he put his face on her shoulder, everyone cried. Beltran said she’s thrilled at the click-click of little paws on the floor and reports he hasn’t left her side since coming home. Decked out in a new leash, he remembers the rules of the house and has already been out walking, since he needs to lose a little weight.

She said she hopes her story helps share the benefits of microchipping.

“It’s been wonderful and I can still barely believe it,” she said.

Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/pima-county-news/2013/11/07/pet-and-his-pet-mom-reunited-after-4-years-thanks-to-microchip/

Tommy, Jack Russell Terrier

A Cynosport Miracle
Brenna Fender
Posted Date: October 25, 2013

Tommy looked like a little, lost dog to some strangers, but in reality he was a Cynosport champion who needed to go home. By Deborah Davidson Harpur and Brenna Fender

If you have been in USDAA agility and at the Cynosport World Games, you will recognize one spunky little dog when you arrive at this year's event or view the live stream. Tommy, the Jack Russell Terrier who runs with Megan Foster, is back to try to earn his spots in the finals and make it on the podium again. Last year, Tommy was the Performance Speed Jumping 8" Champion, but since then, he's had quite an adventure. To look at him, you'd never know he went through a big ordeal just this year.

On Christmas Eve, Tommy, who is owned by Cherie Whittenberg but lives part time with his agility handler, Megan Foster, was startled by some fireworks. He disappeared. Megan says, "I assumed he had escaped the fence and gone to the neighbor's to eat cat food, so I looked there first. When he didn't show up, I searched the entire subdivision, and an hour later, in full panic, called my parents and Cherie for back-up."

Cherie sprang into action. "I live about 50 minutes away from them and I immediately got dressed and drove up there that night to help look for Tommy on Christmas Eve. We searched everywhere we could and I spent the night at her house and looked again once daylight broke on Christmas morning. I had to be at work on Christmas day so I left the search in her family's hands. I immediately called AVID to make sure that my contact information for Tommy's microchip was correct and to report him missing and gave them Megan's contact information for an alternate contact.

I had five days scheduled off to attend the annual New Year s USDAA trial in Belton, Texas, that [Megan's family's] club hosted. So I stayed at their home and continued to search those five days while they were gone and put up signs everywhere.

Megan and I used a phone service that was like an Amber Alert for missing pets and the day she was leaving for the dog show she got a call from a woman that had seen Tommy get into a white SUV that went to a neighborhood just down the street from Megan. I spent my time there searching the neighborhood three times a day and knocked on any door that had a white SUV in the driveway and put up fliers all over that neighborhood and gave them to anyone I found out and about. I also visited the local animal shelters with fliers and talked to staff and animal control officers about Tommy and made sure they had flyers for their trucks."

Handler Megan's sister, Deva, also helped look for Tommy. She says, "We all drove back and rode around looking for him and walking the area as well. Beyond that first night we put up signs and drove through neighborhoods knocking on people's doors asking about him."

But all of that work was for naught. Tommy stayed missing.

Meanwhile, a man from out of town drove by a small, frightened-looking dog. When the man stepped out of his car, that dog came right over. The man kept the dog until he returned to his hometown, and then he left the pup with his brother and sister-in-law. They decided to keep him and call him "Bo."

Bo began suffering from flea allergies about four months later. When his new family brought him to North Pines Animal Hospital, they also asked if anyone recognized who Bo might actually be.

North Pines has a policy to scan all animals brought in for treatment. They discovered that Bo belonged to Cherie Whittenberg and made a fateful phone call. Cherie says, "I was at work on May 1st and was waiting for a call from the district attorney because I was in the middle of testifying in a cruelty case in downtown Houston. I was checking my cell phone frequently and saw that I had missed a call and a voicemail from a 936 area code which is the same area code as where Megan had lived. I listened to the voicemail and it was the vet clinic telling me about this dog that had been brought in to their facility and they didn't know if I still wanted the dog and to please call them. I couldn't quit crying enough to make sense when I got the vet clinic on the phone. I finally calmed down enough and found out that Tommy was back at the family's home and that they would have to contact them and figure out how we could get Tommy back. I was immediately calling Monica, Megan, and Deva, trying to reach someone that was closer to him than me and I could not leave work because of my testimony needed in the cruelty case. Monica was on her way to Dallas and she got hold of her stepson and he and Deva went to pick Tommy up for me."

Tommy was returned two days before his 10th birthday. Deva says, "He was several pounds overweight and he had grayed [during his absence] but he was happy and healthy and that's all that I cared about at that point!" Tommy went home with Cherie for a while, but then got right back into agility, heading out to a regional in Washington, where he qualified to compete at the 2013 Cynosport World Games.

Will Tommy top the podium again this year, against the odds? We'll have to watch and see!

Tommy on the day he was returned

Subscribers can log in to read a detailed account of Tommy's story as told by Cherie, Megan, Deva, Tommy's breeder Linda Knowles, and the North Pines Animal Hospital by clicking here.

Deborah Davidson Harpur has been competing in agility since 1999 and is known as a handler of a wide variety of breeds of all shapes and sizes. She offers agility training classes in the Port of Los Angeles area for both recreational and competitive agility students. You can find her on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/deborah.davidsonharpur or read about her dogs at pm2dogagility.com.

Source: https://www.usdaa.com/article.cfm?newsID=2446

Natty, shepherd mix

Linden man reunited with dog in Jackson five months after losing her in Fenton
By Will Forgrave
on October 14, 2013

JACKSON, MI – Linden resident Daane Birchmeier was convinced that his 11-month old dog Natty was gone for good after she wandered off as he worked on his truck in May.

Linden resident Daane Birchmeier, 21, is reunited with his dog Natty at the Jackson County Animal Shelter after the 11-month-old sheperd mix wandered off in early May.

But five months and more than 70 miles later, Birchmeier and his dog were reunited last week at the Jackson County Animal Shelter, 3370 Spring Arbor Road in Jackson.

"We have no idea how she ended up here," Birchmeier, 21, said. "I'm just ecstatic to have her back."

Birchmeier said he adopted Natty from a shelter in Fenton in January. For five months, the duo lived in Birchmeier's Linden apartment.

"She's the kind of dog that always sticks around and is really chill and relaxed, even as a puppy," Birchmeier said. "She's just a really, really good dog."

Birchmeier said he took Natty to his parents' house in Fenton in early May to work on his truck. Nearly three hours later, Natty was gone.

"She was just wandering around me as I was working, and then I noticed after I was cleaning up that she was gone," Birchmeier said. "My parents live next to a park so we think she might have run off into it, but there's no telling."

Jackson County Animal Shelter Administrative Clerk Debbie Drouin said the dog was picked up by animal control in the 1800 block of E. South Street in Jackson the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 7.

"She's relatively healthy compared with some of the other animals we get in here," Drouin said. "Luckily, she had a microchip so we were able to get in touch with Daane right away."

Used to keep track of pets, microchipping is a procedure during which a veterinarian injects a chip about the size of a grain of rice just under the skin of a dog or cat. A scanner can then be used to glean information such as the owner's name, phone number and address.

Birchmeier picked up Natty on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

"I walked in and she immediately started barking and jumping up and down," Birchmeier said. "I was like 'oh man, did she turn into that kind of dog when I was gone?' I was worried about her.

"The shelter worker, though, said Natty must have really missed me because she had been moping around the last couple of days," he said. "She almost knocked me over when she came running down the hall."

Drouin, who snapped a photo of the reunited pair, said she couldn't keep the dog still to take a photo.

"It was really cute," she said. "She was so excited to see her owner again."

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2013/10/man_loses_his_dog_in_linden_re.html

JJ, border collie mix

West St Paul dog survives two weeks lost in BWCA
Joseph Lindberg
07/31/2013

On Tuesday, Nicole Paradise and husband Greg Rohleder, looked out over Sawbill Lake. Dark clouds were rolling in, and hundreds of miles of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness spread out before them.

Their dog was out there. Lost.

"What are we doing here?" Paradise asked.

Their 2-year-old border collie mix, J.J., was with a family friend July 17 near Skoop Lake in the northeast corner of Minnesota when a storm startled him, and he bolted. He wasn't seen again for 12 days.

While it was J.J.'s third trip to the BWCA Wilderness, the West St. Paul family knew the chances of recovering their pet were slim.

"We were starting to think there was no way," said Paradise, who lives in West St. Paul with her husband and two

Friend and neighbor Stephanie Weiss posted a plea to a BWCA message board, asking for help: "He's timid, so if someone sees him, they might need to coax him with food and gentle patience ... he's the sweetest peanut."

The response was immediate, and message boards lit up. WTIP North Shore Community Radio, Arrowhead Animal Rescue, Sawbill Canoe Outfitters and the Cook County ATV Club all spread the word. Friends shared photos and information on Facebook and other social media sites.

Scores of folks were now looking for J.J., all over the BWCA Wilderness expanse.

And it worked.

On Monday, a camper spotted J.J. near the northwest corner of Sawbill Lake, about seven miles south of Skoop Lake, and reported the sighting. Paradise and Rohleder got the news and didn't hesitate -- they began their 260-mile rescue mission immediately.

The next day at Sawbill Canoe Outfitters, one of the most-popular BWCA Wilderness entrance points, the couple were equipped for their search.

"We didn't know what we were doing, really," Paradise said. "We just got in a canoe and started paddling around."

A sense of futility crept in. Even after talking to the group that spotted


View J.J.'s Journey in a larger mapJ.J., the duo quickly ran out of leads. Tuesday night, they spotted storm clouds and made their way out of the woods in search of cellphone reception.
That night came the big break: a voicemail from a camper who lured J.J. into a tent with a trail of hotdogs. Those campers were Dave Kringsand and Mike Raub.

Paradise explained: "While Dave paddled back to the outfitters to get us the message, Mike was able to make a trail of hotdogs and get J.J. in his tent. J.J. wouldn't let either one of them touch him. They said he just laid down in the tent, and every once in a while all night he would whimper and cry."

Paradise and Rohleder rushed to Sawbill Lake on Wednesday morning, and J.J.'s tail started wagging the second he saw them.

The couple learned J.J. had been wandering north of Sawbill Lake and likely had to pass through wolf territory on his way south.

"He was a bit skinny but was just fine," Paradise said. "It was a little overwhelming."

"(They) are the reason we have him home," Paradise said, thanking Kringsand and Raub.

The rescue Wednesday comes a week after news reports of a different but equally improbable dog rescue in the BWCA by a five teammates of the Minnetonka High School cross-country team.

The reunited trio drove back to the Twin Cities on Wednesday, where family and friends were waiting for news.

About 11:30 a.m., Paradise posted on her Facebook page:

"Operation rescue J.J. has been a success. We are on our way home with a skinny, tick-covered dog! Unbelievable!!!"

Source: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_23768376/west-st-paul-dog-survives-2-weeks-lost?sf557379=1

Video available at: http://youtu.be/XtuwV201CCk