Bella, a pug

Pet detective solves case of purloined pug
By Tommy Hallissey

Danielle Cioti happily hugs her dog Bella after they were reunited — with the help of a pet detective — on June 25.

Danielle Cioti’s pet pug, Bella, went on an Odyssey that took her all the way to Elizabeth, N.J. It took lots of help from family, friends and even a pet detective to bring the pair back together.

Forget Ace Ventura. It took a real life pet detective to reunite Danielle Cioti with her seven-yearold pug, Bella, after the dog went missing at the Riverdale Equestrian Centre on June 13.

Working for Rescue Ink, an animal welfare organization, a retired police detective — who simply calls himself Angel — doggedly tracked Bella’s movements from Riverdale to Yonkers to Elizabeth, N.J., before arranging a tearful reunion on June 25.

Ms. Cioti, a trainer at the Van Cortlandt Park stable, described the events of her unlucky Friday the 13th. She explained that Bella spends a lot of time with her while she works, but that day the dog lagged behind while Ms. Cioti rode a horse on a park trail. “Bella, go home [to the stable], you’re not going to make it,” Ms. Cioti recalled saying to the dog.

But when she returned from her ride at around 3:30 p.m. Bella was nowhere to be found. Ms. Cioti panicked.

With the help of her friends at the stable, she canvassed the grounds. “We looked in the woods… everywhere,” she said.

But the canvass was fruitless.

Undaunted, Ms. Cioti and her co-workers, family and friends spread out over an ever-widening area to post copies of a bright day-glo flier with the dog’s cute, wrinkly face on it. She covered her car with her phone number and a plea for Bella’s safe return, posted messages online and called the city’s 311 help line.

“She’s part of the family,” Marissa Mastronardi, also a trainer at the stable, said of Bella.

The moral support and legwork of family and friends helped Ms. Cioti reach out to hundreds of people. “This dog has the biggest fan club of any dog I know,” Ms. Cioti said. “People fight to babysit her.”

Eventually, a woman came forward and said she had found the dog on June 13, but that she couldn’t keep it. Instead, she gave it to someone who promised to look for the owner.

Fortunately, the first woman kept the name and cell phone number of the second woman and before long Ms. Cioti had a fix on the dog’s location — in New Jersey.

Hoping to be reunited with her pet, Ms. Cioti traveled to the home of Cathy Leon in Elizabeth, N.J., only to be rebuffed by the dog’s new “owner.” At first, Ms. Cioti said, Ms. Leon denied having the dog. “I was hysterical crying and she looks me in the eye and said, ‘I’ll help you put up signs,’” Ms. Cioti recalled.

But her luck was finally turning.

Her poster campaign got the attention of Rescue Ink, a non-profit staffed by heavily tattooed, intimidating gentlemen.

‘Zero tolerance’

The organization specializes in finding lost or stolen pets. “Rescue Ink is all about zero tolerance when it comes to animal abuse and neglect,” its Web site states above a picture of Mike Tattoo, a former actor with tattoos on his neck, face and scalp.

The details of exactly how the dog got to Elizabeth, N.J. are in dispute.

Ms. Cioti believes one of the women gave Bella to a homeless man who traded her for a cigarette.

Angel said he couldn’t substantiate this part of the story. “The fact is the dog was taken from the stable area by a woman in Yonkers and the dog went to New Jersey,” he said. “It passed from hand to hand. Who took it? I don’t know.”

At first, when confronted by the pet detective, the New Jersey resident insisted she was keeping Bella.

“Angel was able to convince her there would be serious repercussions to her actions,” Ms. Cioti said.

He set up a June 25 reunion at the Vannie stables with Ms. Cioti, Ms. Leon and Bella. Ms. Cioti nervously paced the parking lot at around 4 p.m. as she waited for Bella to arrive.

‘Whole again’

When Ms. Leon finally arrived in a black Lincoln Town Car Bella scurried out of a white crate into Ms. Cioti’s waiting arms. “We’re whole again, everybody. We got the missing member,” Ms. Cioti said to her gathered friends.

Ms. Leon insisted she hadn’t known whose dog Bella was, but she was happy to return her.

For his pet detective efforts Angel took no money, but there was talk of a celebratory barbecue at the stable. “The most important thing is for the dog to go back to the owner, see her happy, see the dog happy,” he said.

Angel said Rescue Ink can be particularly helpful because police departments often view lost animals the way they view lost property — a low priority. Angel sees tracking down lost animals as a way of giving back. “We do it out of the kindness of our heart,” he said.

Source: http://www.riverdalepress.com/full.php?sid=5047¤t_edition=2008-07-03

Mollie, a chihuahua

Bremerton Dog Reunited With Owner After a Year
By Josh Farley
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

BREMERTON
About 2 pounds heavier and 1 year older, Mollie the Chihuahua is back in Bremerton.

Three-and-a-half-year-old Mollie vanished from a neighbor’s yard in September 2007 with only her leash left behind. The loss was devastating for Kathy Swanlund, who bought Mollie in Mexico. The dog became a companion to her husband, who died from an illness. But Swanlund had prepared for the possibility of Mollie going missing, and installing a microchip in her neck.

“I knew she’d turn up eventually,” she said. But it was not the way Swanlund — or anyone, really — had expected.

Mollie turned up in a Tacoma veterinary hospital last week, and the vet believed the dog had ingested methamphetamine. The man who brought her in was suspected by hospital staff to be high on meth, according to Bremerton Police reports. The vet induced vomiting and cleared her system of stimulants, then found that the dog had been apart from her owner for the past year.

A Tacoma man who had brought the dog to the vet said that he had merely taken the dog as payment on a debt, and that he had no idea that she was stolen. When police notified her, Swanlund said she didn’t want to press any charges.

“She just wanted her dog back,” officers said in reports.

Born in Mexico, the 12-ounce Mollie came to Washington with Swanlund, who wanted a companion for her husband, Paul Miller, who had fallen ill. The dog was a source of happiness for the couple.


But following Miller’s death, one day Swanlund heard Mollie bark from her neighbor Ron’s yard one time, and then she was gone.

Saddened, but hopeful that the microchip would help locate the dog eventually, Swanlund in the meantime placed an ad in the Kitsap Sun looking for a new Chihuahua. She soon received a call that one found in a trash bin in Viewcrest Village needed a home.

Millie, now 1½, was tan-colored just like Mollie, only with a white stripe down her forehead.

Mollie didn’t seem to take well to other dogs, so Swanlund had no idea how the dogs would get along if Mollie returned. After a call from the veterinarian’s office, she learned she would finally find out.

The office said they would report the matter to police, who would have to handle returning the dog. Swanlund waited.


“And waited and waited and waited,” she said. She called Bremerton Police on Sunday repeatedly, waiting to hear from an officer. Sgt. Wendy Davis took on the case. Davis got a hold of the man who claimed ownership of the dog. She told him that he was in possession of stolen property and that he needed to return the dog.

Davis stopped by Swanlund’s home on Sunday. The 58-year-old looked tired, Davis said.

“I think she’d been up about 24 hours after she got a call from the vet,” Davis said.

In a Denny’s parking lot, Mollie was exchanged between the Tacoma man and Swanlund. Few words were spoken, Swanlund said.

“You could tell he didn’t want to give her up,” she said, adding that conversations with the family since have ensured her that the dog was well taken care of.

Still, no one knows who stole the dog. Bremerton police detectives have the case for review.

Mollie weighs in at about 7½ pounds, and Swanlund said she’ll be putting her on a diet to put a dent in her pudgy tummy. Otherwise, she’s perfectly healthy.

Swanlund introduced Mollie to Millie. It seems there’s some working out left to do.

“I tried to get them to get along, but (Mollie) wasn’t having it,” Swanlund said.

Source: http://m.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/Sep/23/lost-for-a-year-chihuahua-reunited-with-owner

Baxter, a brown dog

Finding Baxter: The Skeptic's Story
(From the files of Sam Connolly, Pure Gold Pet Trackers)

I was very skeptical about hiring a dog tracker, but I am sure glad I did! My dog, Baxter, had been missing for over a month. We were from North Carolina, and he had run away in Maryland. Numerous animal agencies, websites and shelters had been contacted and his posters were posted online as well as hung around the neighborhood. I had to be off to Texas for a while and was relying on my brother to be the point of contact in Maryland for any sightings. It was not long before a wind storm had blown away most of the posters, but luckily someone had seen them and had sighted Baxter on their farm.

Baxter had been spotted off and on for around 2 weeks at the farm, but being a very shy, scared, and untrusting dog, he ran away from everyone calling his name and trying to catch him. The sightings eventually stopped and the food, kennel, and toy we had placed on the farm remained untouched. More posters were hung and blown away (Sam has some good poster-making advice as well). Neighbors near the farm had been talked to and received flyers. Two more weeks had gone by with no Baxter reports and things were looking dim.

I was doubtful that I had enough of Baxter’s scent for him to be tracked, not to mention that it had been a month since he had touched his things and two weeks since he was last seen. However, I decided as a last effort before going back home to North Carolina to go forth with the dog tracking.

I contacted Sam Connelly of Pure Gold Pet Trackers from her website. She was very honest with me about not knowing if there would be enough scent on the articles that I had to start the tracking dog. She also said that since it had been so long as well as hot and dry, that there may not be enough of a trail left to follow. She encouraged me to give it a try, though, and I agreed.

Sam and Brando met me at the farm where my dog had last been seen and I gave her one of Baxter’s toys and his hairbrush. She let Brando smell the articles and we started the search. After checking a few spots on the farm where my dog had been seen we finally found a good trail to follow. We wound along through a couple of back yards near the farm, crossing the busy Rt. 32 three times and into a small wooded area behind some homes across the road from the farm where we had started. The trail went through the edge of the woods and eventually came out to a barbed-wire fence around a small pasture. As my brother and I talked to the owners for permission to cross their property, Sam and Brando waited at the place where the trail went under the fence. Sam heard a noise behind her and turning to see what it was, found Baxter standing about 20 feet away at the edge of the wood. He had been following us through the woods and came looking for me but came upon Sam and Brando first.

After being spotted, Baxter ran back to the woods to his safe spot where he had been staying. Sam yelled to me that she had seen Baxter. As I ran up to her she handed me a small can of cat food with a pop-top lid and told me to go into the woods, find a place to sit on a stump or fallen tree somewhere, open the can, put it on the ground in front of me and call softly to Baxter until he came to me. She also gave me a bag of dog treats to toss into the woods all around me to lure him in. After a month wandering on his own he had to be starving and food was definitely going to be attractive to him. Within half an hour of waiting in the woods, I had him back with me.

I cannot thank Sam and Brando enough for leading me back to my dog! He is right now lounging in his favorite spot: the bed. I highly recommend the Pure Gold Pet Tracking team and urge anyone to use them before too much time has passed. I found it well worth the money and effort.

Thank you,
Elizabeth

Source: http://www.puregoldpettrackers.com

Sasha, some kind of spaniel

Lost Dog Reunited Story
Claire Boyles
lostdogs.ie member

After my dog Sasha went missing, I rang the DSPCA, local vets, Garda stations etc but no one had found her. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see her again and I just hoped that she’d been found by someone who would give her a nice new home & that she was safe.

I received a phone call from a lovely lady called Brenda who had a little brown & white dog who’d been found in the Phoenix park. She asked me did Sasha have a collar, and what colour was it? I told her green leather- I’d bought it in Italy for her last summer. So sorry, said Brenda this collar is black- best of luck finding Sasha. I was really disappointed, but there wasn’t anything I could do.

5 mins later Brenda rang back - the dog's collar IS green :)

I was delighted, I couldn’t believe it!! Sasha had been found!! I can’t remember the last time I was so happy about hearing some news!!

Sasha had been found in the Phoenix park very muddy on Thursday morning, near the President’s residence. One of the members of staff knew Brenda and knew that she had been looking for a dog, so they called her. Brenda & her 2 teenage children could tell the dog was a lost dog, not a stray, so they then set about seeing if anyone had lost a dog. They got onto the internet and found her on www.lostdogs.ie and rang me. :)

If it wasn’t for twitter & the amazing amount of help & support that I received – and people telling me about the websites for lost dogs I would never have found her. I am SO grateful, thank you everyone who helped find Sasha. I am so delighted that there is a happy ending to this story!

As you can see from the picture she is very happy to be at home again. When I picked her up on Saturday I’ve never seen her so excited & delighted to see myself & Goldie. She doesn’t understand how well known she is- this morning on our run someone shouted over to us across the road that they’d seen her in Phoenix park & glad to see we’d been reunited! Let’s hope she’s learned her lesson- I certainly have, she’s not getting off the lead again at night I can tell you!

Source: http://www.lostdogs.ie/blog/lost-dog-reunited-story