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December 15, 2006
Makes me melt inside
I've always been a sucker for a good dog story. This one is right out of a Hallmark movie:
Alice Baines could not find him on the block. She could not find him near the dock. She could not find him here nor there. She could not find him anywhere.But two years after a hurricane blew down a back-yard fence in Florida and set free a golden retriever named Sam-I-Am, the wayward pooch was found in McHenry County.
In the most unlikely of reunions Thursday night, Sam-I-Am ran across the tiled floor at O'Hare International Airport and rested his head on the arm of owner Baines, who flew to Chicago from her home in Tampa to retrieve him.
"I can't believe it," she said. "This kind of thing doesn't happen."
Veterinarians in McHenry County were stunned as well when they discovered a microchip in the scruff of the dog's neck that placed his home more than 1,200 miles to the southeast.
"I've never seen anything like it," said McHenry County animal control officer Sean Graff.
`Have you got him?'
On Thursday night, Brett Baines, 9, waited in Florida for the return of his canine pal. The boy last saw the dog in 2004 after the hurricane ripped up a fence outside the family's home.
Read the whole story here.
Now, I've never had anything quite like this happen, but I have two favorite runaway dog stories. When I was a wee lad, we had a dog named Stanley, who was a behemoth. But he was also very gentle, because my brothers and I could climb over him and pull his tail and he never did a bad thing. But he sure loved to run away - once he jumped through the window at the mailman and chased him down the block. Everytime Stanley ran away, my dad would get him vanilla ice cream from Dairy Queen when he caught him. Once, when Stanley was like 15 years old, he walked through an open gate and we found him walking down the road about a quarter mile from the house. He didn't even resist: he climbed right into the car. We think he used to run away just for the ice cream.
After him, our next dog was Indy. He was more of a people dog, and once he got loose and nobody could find him. We looked all over the place, until our neighbors called. They were having a garage sale, and Indy had gone to the sale and set up shop under a table, where everyone was petting him and giving him treats. He wasn't even off looking for female companionship, all he wanted were people to pat him on the head. What a dog.
entry no. 689
Posted by oz115 at December 15, 2006 12:35 PM