I know what it's like to lose a dog. It happened to me - and to my family - when I was a teenager and Goldie, our standard Poodle, ran away. We looked for her in animal shelters, ran ads in newspapers, put up fliers in our town and surrounding areas. After several months of searching every day after school and on weekends, we lost hope.
One year later, almost to the day she disappeared, our veterinarian called and said he believed he had found her. Someone brought in a scruffy, filthy apricot-colored Poodle, and the ID on her collar listed him as the vet. He called us.
It was Goldie, all right. We thought we would never see her again, but there she was in our vet's office looking scared and uncertain. I can't describe how happy we were.
Those memories came rushing back when I read the story about Muffy, a Terrier mix on the east coast of Australia who went missing for nine years. Nine years! The other day, she was reunited with her family in Queensland.
RSPCA Australia heard about the dog from someone who had seen her living in a suburban backyard in Melbourne. But she looked sickly, so the person called the organization.
"We found her living in pretty awful conditions on a piece of cardboard," RSPCA inspector Gail Coulter (pictured above with Muffy) told the Times newspaper. "She had matted hair and was riddled with fleas and had a really severe dermatitis condition."
A welfare agency discovered that Muffy had a microchip and traced her to the Lampard family, which had purchased another dog, named Jack, after giving up hope of finding Muffy. But Jack died four months ago.
"I just couldn't believe it. It's absolutely amazing," Natalie Lampard told the Times. "I told my daughter Chloe and she was just over the moon. She can't wait to see Muffy again."
The dog will need continued care for her skin condition, but after a 1,250-mile odyssey and almost a decade on her own, she's clearly none the worse for wear.
Oh, the stories she could tell.
The nerve.
A jewelry salesman from Kansas told police in Denver this week that he was robbed at gunpoint outside a Starbucks. The bad guys got away with $300,000 worth of dog jewelry.
Who steals dog jewelry? A thieving Chihuahua? A felonious French Poodle?
Actually, police say they don't really know if a crime occurred. They're taking the salesman, who said he was in town for the Rocky Mountain Cluster Dog Show, at his word.
"We can't just say that it seems kind of far-fetched," Parker, Colo., Police Captain Jim Tsurapas told the Rocky Mountain News. "We're treating it as an armed robbery. We are going to pursue it to see if we can prove it or disprove it."
The salesman said three tubs of jewelry, including bejeweled dog collars, were taken from him. He had stopped to buy a cup of coffee.
I say they should check Paris Hilton's dogs first. If they have guilty looks, put them in a lineup.
In the midst of a discussion about the economy, global uncertainty and homeland security, President-elect Barack Obama revealed something important about the type of dog that will soon be living within the walls of the White House.
It's either going to be a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog.
Speaking with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," Obama said the choices had been narrowed to those two breeds, although the Labradoodle is really a hybrid (Labrador Retriever and Poodle) and is not recognized by the American Kennel Club. But the question came at the prompting of daughters Malia and Sasha, who accompanied their dad to the televised interview.
Here's how the exchange went:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I got to tell you, you know, (Malia and Sasha are) out touring the museum right now, I heard they were taken straight to the first dog exhibit and while you were getting made up, they went into the control room and played director and producer. And they actually gave me a question they want me to ask you. You know exactly what it's going to be.
OBAMA: Uh-oh. Go ahead.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What kind of a dog are we getting and when are we getting it?
OBAMA: The -- they seem to have narrowed it down to a Labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound.
STEPHANOPOULOS: A medium sized.
OBAMA: Medium sized dog, and so, we're now going to start looking at shelters to see when one of those dogs might come up.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you're closing in on it?
OBAMA: We're closing in on it. This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary.
I don't know if you saw the story about the woman who recently adopted 27 dogs from a shelter to prevent them from being euthanized. When I first read it, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
I'm sure Colleen Spalioni's heart was in the right place. She lost her own dog in November when it was struck and killed by a car, and she wanted to find another that looked just like him. Her Internet search led her to Dogsindanger.com, a site that posts photos of dogs in shelters with the number of days they have left until they are euthanized.
Spalioni, who lives near Reno, hired a teenage neighbor to drive with her almost 800 miles to a shelter near Bakersfield, Calif., where she found a dog that resembled her own. But after seeing so many dogs in need of homes, she just couldn't help herself.
She adopted the dog she wanted - and 26 others, including one Chihuahua, 10 Chihuahua mixes, two German Shepherd mixes, two Miniature Pinschers, a Jack Russell Terrier and a Poodle. She loaded them into her truck and drove home.
Everything would have been fine, except that her new dogs did what dogs normally do. They barked -- so much, in fact, that the neighbors began complaining. And then she was told that a local ordinance allows no more than three dogs per household.
Since then, Spalioni has been looking for new homes for the dogs. So far, she's found places for almost all of them.
And, she said, "I learned my lesson. I promise I won't do this again."
Her concern for the dogs is admirable. I commend her. I'm sure others would love to do the same if they had the space and time to love and care for dogs in need.
But as someone who owns four dogs, I could have told her: It's a lot of work.
President-elect Obama has a lot of work ahead of him, but probably no job is more important at this moment than picking the right family dog.
In his acceptance speech, Obama said his daughters, Malia and Sasha, had "earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House." Even Vice-President-elect Joe Biden said his wife gave him the OK to buy a dog if he and Obama won the election.
A few weeks ago, I wrote that because Malia, 10, has allergies, the Obamas will have a limited selection of breeds from which to choose - the Poodle, Soft-Coated Wheaton Terrier, Bichon Frise, Miniature Schnauzer and Chinese Crested are all considered good breeds for people with allergies, although there is no such thing as a truly hypoallergenic dog. (In August, the American Kennel Club conducted an online poll, and the Poodle was the winner.)
But because the family has chosen to adopt rather than buy - a great decision, one that may lead to more prospective dog owners visiting their local shelters - they might have to look for a mixed breed that produces less dander. Dogs that have short hair and shed very little might fit well, even if they're mixed. A Maltese or Shih Tzu mix would produce less shedding and would seem like a good size for children who are old enough to learn about responsible pet ownership.
Malia has told her parents that she would like a Goldendoodle, a hybrid that is part Golden Retriever, part Poodle. Although not recognized by the American Kennel Club, it is growing in popularity and is considered a great family dog.
It's not likely they'll find a Goldendoodle (pictured above) at a shelter, but perhaps the Obamas can find a pet that their girls will love - and will encourage others to discover the benefits of rescuing a shelter dog.
