Princessa, chihuahua/rat terrier

Princessa’s Story – A Small Lost Dog Survives Four Months During a Brutal Wisconsin Winter
Posted by LostDogsofAmerica
November 15, 2013

Once upon a time there was a small 8 lb chihuahua/rat terrier cross named Princessa who was the princess of the house. She sat on the back of the couch and probably ate bon-bons.

Then one day on November 6, 2010 while on a big trip to a semi-rural Super Walmart in Pewaukee, Wisconsin she managed to slip out of the car and she was off! She had a collar and tags, and was a friendly little girl, but that big parking lot and all those cars must have been scary; even for a Princess, because she ran into a residential subdivision, and vanished.

The owner contacted Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, we posted her, and she was reported missing to all the correct places. But still nothing. Nobody had seen her and the worst was feared.

But what we have learned is that the worst seldom happens. Coyotes are not lurking behind every bush; dog fighters are not waiting to scoop up lost dogs and use them for bait dogs; and lost dogs are usually way too resourceful to starve or freeze to death.

We have learned that many owners give up far too early and because of this our shelters are overcrowded with “strays” which are in reality – lost pets.  Helping educate owners on effective methods to recover their lost pets is a large part of the No Kill Equation. Why try to find a new home for that “stray” when it has a perfectly good home already? There are far needier animals in need of shelter space and new homes.

So back to Princessa’s story. We still had nothing to go on. Until one day early in December, we had a call that a small brown dog was hanging out behind the Thunder Bay Grille just off of I-94, a great restaurant with a fine menu. It was only about 3 miles from the Walmart, so we knew it was possible for it to be Princessa.  We took a live trap over thinking this was going to be an easy catch.

Well, it was not. Why eat rotisserie chicken in the trap when you can have prime rib at the dumpster?  Some nights she almost went in, reaching with her long beautiful Princess neck just over the trip plate. Some nights she snubbed us completely – “You expect me to eat that?”  We offered her everything we could think of – delicious concoctions provided by our volunteers. The Christmas season came and along with it all the holiday parties at the restaurant, with large trays of lovely offerings – lots of which missed the dumpster and became a doggy smorgasbord.

On bitterly cold nights we had to close the trap for fear that she would be caught too long and freeze. But no worries there – she wasn’t going in. We tried big traps, small traps, covered traps, cozy traps, traps fit for a Princess. Christmas and New Year’s came and went.

The Thunder Bay Princess became the Thunder Bay Devil Dog in my mind. I’d lie awake at nights and dream up ways to catch her. My husband, an engineer, tinkered with the traps and came up with a double catch method. Other Lost Dogs members and myself would spend hours on the phone or over coffee scheming. I think we were getting crazed looks in our eyes – kind of like Bill Murray in Caddyshack trying to catch the gopher.

She lived in a hole under the porch at the restaurant, but was seldom seen. Only her tiny footprints in the snow showed us her daily whereabouts.

Then one day in mid January -  she was gone again. A worrisome couple of weeks. Why would she give up the restaurant food? Was she concerned about her waistline and her high fat/low fiber diet? Looking for a new kingdom to conquer? Luckily a phone call from a neighboring condominium subdivision came in – just when we were beginning to think we’d completely lost track of her and were back to square one. The caller said a fat brown, sausagey looking dog with short legs was seen running across the patio.

Late January. More blizzards, bitterly cold weather and very deep snow. A sighting here, a sighting there. She was now the Princess of Avondale and Stillwater, two very nice, spacious condo subdivisions with a lot of green space, plenty of birdseed, and endless decks and sunrooms to crawl under for shelter. An upscale neighborhood with a regular garbage day – what more could a Princess want? So here a trap, there a trap, everywhere a trap, trap. But only an angry possum. Never a Princess in a trap.

February came and went. The snow started to melt.  Princessa was a busy girl. One day I saw her – her coat glistening in the sun. I made a note to add more sunflower seeds to my diet. Sometime in February she lost her collar.

The residents were wonderful. They called with every sighting. They helped man the feeding station and the trap. One resident that was helping us took this picture, as she warmed herself by a vent on the side of a condo.
She was now very comfortable in this quiet neighborhood and would be seen five or ten times a day. Our phones were busy, but our trap was not.

March arrives. The snow starts to melt and the Princess is enjoying rolling on bare patches of grass in the sunshine. And suddenly a bunch of us had the same idea at the same time. Maybe we just needed a bigger trap! The snow had melted away from the gates of the tennis court. The wonderful Avondale property manager opened it up for us and offered to keep her food bowl filled. He moved it progressively into the tennis court – a little bit at a time, so she didn’t get suspicious of our plan. I was envisioning tennis players in August having to jump a small, fat dog as they dove for the ball.

But – thankfully, it didn’t take that long. On March 10th we got the call. A lady walking by had seen her in the tennis courts eating from her bowl and had snuck up and shut the gate.
And so the story of the Pewaukee Princess came to an extremely happy ending. No frostbite, no medical problems. An 8 lb dog that lived outside for four months through a brutally cold Wisconsin winter. She spent a few days in rehabilitation with one of our Lost Dogs of Wisconsin volunteers, Kathie D; but then came right back around to being a Couch and Lap Princess. Princessa gave us memories to last a lifetime plus another success story to encourage owners of lost dogs to Never, Ever Give Up.

A huge thank you to the residents and management of the Avondale and Stillwater condominium subdivisions, the staff and management at the Thunder Bay Grille, the Mobil station, the Machine Shed restaurant and the Radisson hotel; the staff at the AT&T building; BREW Midwest for the loan of a trap; Mark H at HAWS; and to the wonderful members of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin – Carlene and Becca H, Kathie D, Larry D, Susan T and Carol S, and my husband, all of whom manned the trap, delivered flyers, concocted wild schemes, and commiserated with me during the entire process.

Source: http://lostdogsofamerica.org/princessas-story-a-small-lost-dog-survives-four-months-during-a-brutal-wisconsin-winter/

Nigel, pug mix

Bridgewater pet owner reunited with lost dog found in Readington
By Frank Mustac / Independent Press
January 03, 2012 at 11:50 AM

READINGTON TWP. — Happy is the owner who finds a lost pet, and such was the case of Darryn Urszulak and her little dog Nigel.

A small pug-mix dog named Nigel was reunited recently with its owner Darryn Urszulak of Bridgewater (holding dog) after Readington Township building and grounds employees (from left) Tony Madeano, Ben Przewozny and Eric Santo found the lost animal at the Eversole-Hall House museum near the Municipal Building. Nigel had been missing for 18 days, having trekked more that 10 miles from Bridgewater to Readington via Bedminster.

Urszulak had rescued the brown pug mix from being euthanized at an animal shelter in Connecticut and only had the dog for one day before Nigel slipped out of a harness during a walk near Urszulak’s Bridgewater home on Dec. 3 and ran away. After posting fliers in the neighborhood and information online about her missing dog, which she described as “shy and scared of people,” Urszulak received several calls that Nigel was seen in nearby Bedminster, then in Readington.

On Dec. 21, a full 18 days after going missing, three Readington Township building and grounds employees found Nigel hiding in a flowerbed at the Eversole-Hall House museum. The museum, which is about 10 miles from where Urszulak lives on Red Lion Way in Bridgewater, is small blue building on Route 523 near the Readington Municipal Building.

The employees, Eric Santo, Tony Madeano and Ben Przewozny, recognized the dog from the photo on a flier posted around the township. When they found him, Nigel was shaking and his right front paw was badly hurt.

“It’s funny, we had just been talking about the dog,” said Madeano, recounting a conversation he had with his co-workers about 20 minutes before the find.

The three men walked carefully toward the animal, then one of them gently picked him up and took the dog to the nearby Municipal Building.

“You could tell he was scared,” Madeano said. “But he didn’t resist at all.”

Finding the dog “was being at the right place at the right time and being lucky,” Santo said.

The trio brought Nigel to Lorraine Petzinger, the township’s Board of Health secretary who handles dog licensing for the municipality. Petzinger got veterinary care for Nigel by contacting animal control, which transported the dog to nearby Hunterdon Hills Animal Hospital. She also got in touch with Urszulak, who had offered a $1,000 reward.

“We didn’t want to take the reward,” said Santo.

Payment enough, he said, is just knowing the dog was returned to its rightful owner. “It made our day,” Santo said.

Meando said he and his co-workers turned down the money because “all of us are dog owners. My dog that I have now is a rescue also. And it’s Christmas. We all wanted to do the right thing.’

Urszulak said that Nigel is now home in Bridgewater “doing great” and enjoying snuggling on the bed and getting his ears scratched. “He’s my Christmas miracle,” she said.

During her search for her missing dog, Urszulak said she initially received phone calls from people who saw Nigel at a farm in Bedminster along Burnt Mills Road. When she went to the area, she saw Nigel, but was unable to catch him.

Several days later, she received a call from a veterinary office in Whitehouse Station. Nigel was seen there along Route 523. Urszulak doubted that her small dog could have traveled all the way to Readington, but she posted more fliers there anyway.

“I started to get phone calls,” she said. “People in Readington and Bridgewater were fantastic with helping me find him. I really appreciate the amount of time and effort that so many people put in.”

From the information she received, Urszulak was able to determine that Nigel had settled in the area of Mountain Road in Readington. A family that lives on Route 523 there saw Nigel eating cat food in their garage.

“They tried several times to get him, but he’s very shy and skittish of people,” she said. “Then on December 21, I got a call from Lorraine of Readington dog licensing. Lorraine said, ‘We found your dog. We have your dog.’”

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Urszulak, noting, unfortunately, that Nigel had been hit by a car only a day or two before being found and the vet says he may eventually may lose the limb. “I’m doing alternative therapy at the moment,” said Urszulak.

The reward money, she said, is being donated to Starfish, a community-based volunteer organization that helps local families in need, and to the Friends of the Dog Park in Readington, which maintains the dog park in the township.

“The checks will be going out to those two charities in honor of the three men who helped save Nigel,” said Urszulak, who also expressed thanks for all the support she received in her search for her lost dog. “I needed it and Nigel needed it.”


Source: http://www.nj.com/messenger-gazette/index.ssf/2012/01/bridgewater_pet_owner_reunited_with_lost_dog_found_in_readington.html

Madley, yellow lab

Social networking helped find beautiful dog stolen in front of her owner
Elisa Black-Taylor, Greenville Dog Examiner
January 28, 2014

Thanks to social media, a dog kidnapped in front of her owner is back with her family. Bark Dog Rescue reported the reunion between Jason and his white lab, Madly, on January 26.

Jason and madly were reunited January 26

This Examiner article covered the story of a beautiful white lab who was snatched in front of her owner outside the home where Jason was visiting his in-laws. The scum who abducted Madly pulled over and literally scooped Madly up as she used the bathroom, then sped off in a truck.

Thanks to Facebook, word got around. Thousands shared Madly's story with others-and then it happened. Lisa Butler Holland and her husband were at the right place at the right time.

Madly was spotted at a house, where she was playing in the yard with other dogs. Lisa, who recognized Madly by the truck description, called to the dog. Madly came right over when she heard her name, and was soon on her way back to Jason.

The police are involved in this case, especially since there were other dogs at the residence with Madly. A detective has already visited the home of the suspected dog napper, and hopefully enough evidence can be gathered to file charges.

Jason learned a lot from this ordeal. Not only did he learn the powerful networking influence available in finding missing pets. He also learned this type of crime happens more often than people realize.

It's not safe to leave a dog, even in a back yard fence, if you're going to be away from home. Many dogs are stolen with their owners inside, unaware until it's too late.

Please keep a close eye on your dogs, especially if they live outside. There are cruel people out there, who are either evil or just looking to make a few dollars. Thankfully Madly was rescued by a dog lover.

Thank you Lisa, for the care you and your husband gave Madly until she could be returned to her owner.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/social-networking-helped-find-beautiful-dog-stolen-front-of-her-owner

Daphne

Dog Missing For 3 Years Reunited With Owner
January 30, 2014

ST. LOUIS, MO. – After having gone missing over three years ago from his St. Louis backyard, Griffin Walker is now looking forward to a reunion with his dog, Daphne.

Daphne was recently brought to the Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO). The information in Daphne’s microchip led staff to Walker, the son of St. Louis Director of Health Pamela Walker.

“I was shocked when I got the phone call and heard that she was found,” said Walker. “Even though you always hold on to some small piece of hope, three years is a long time for a pet to be missing.”

“This happy day may never have happened without Daphne having been microchipped. We hope every pet owner will take the importance of microchipping to heart and have their pets microchipped as soon as possible,” said Kathy Warnick, president, Humane Society of Missouri.

Daphne is currently receiving veterinary care, and it is suspected that she has developed a tumor in her ear, but is healthy overall.

All pets adopted from the Humane Society of Missouri and other shelters in the city are microchipped before they go home.

Source: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/01/30/dog-missing-for-3-years-reunited-with-owner/