Winning the lottery doesn't compare to this.
 

My best friend and puppy dog Otis ran off last night. I live on one of the busiest roads in Columbia, MO (town of about 100,000 in the summer and 150,000-200,000 during the college season).

I was spraying the house with home-defense varmint control before we winterized the house so I put him on a chain in my fenced in back yard. He's never on a chain and never outside for more than 15 to 20 minutes by himself, but I was going to the laundromat and wanted the house to air out while I was gone. I came home 1 and a half hours later to find his collar empty on the chain and him nowhere to be found in my yard. It is now pitch dark, 7:30ish pm.

I live in a shady neighborhood. Very shady, old brown stones and duplexes built in the 1920s. Home of crack heads and poor college students. I scoured the neighborhood until 10pm, but soon realized that it was futile and just knew he was gone for good. Drank beer until 1:00 am, knowing I wasn't going to sleep a wink that night.

This morning I woke up at 6:30am, went to Wal-Mart and bought document protectors and duct tape. Ran to campus and printed up color lost dog posters. Spent all morning since sun rise putting posters all over my neighborhood, probably 3 square mile area.

At 8:57 am I got a call that a golden retriever with a blue collar on was playing loose with another stray dog, a black lab. I just knew it wasn't my puppy because of the collar (Otis's collar was still on the chain in my back yard!), after sprinting the 4 or so blocks to where the lady said she was waiting with this stray I threw about 15 dog posters in the air, dropped my coffee, and hugged my Otis! (Named after the great Otis Taylor of course).

Lady wouldn't take my cash reward, loaded me and my dog in her car and drove us home!!!!!

Good people still exist in this world. Even in my crack head neighborhood!

13 to 14 hours loose on busy streets, with no real street experience other than walks on a leash and my dog is sitting by my side as I type this.

How on earth did he get a collar on him?

Very nice. Congrats.

Poster:

I would probably invest and open a new busines if I won the lottery

Me too. But a significant amount would be going to an animal shelter after last night.

Great story! I'm sure Otis was happy to see u too! Have u considered sending the lady a thank u card and flowers, or something?

If total enrollment at Mizzou is only 30,000, why does the population of Columbia balloon by 50,000-100,000 when school is in session? I know there are a couple of other small schools in Columbia, but I don't think they make that much of a difference.

Congratulations on finding your dog. :)

Dude, all you had to do was text Tyler and you would have had your dog back in no time.

Oh, and I'm happy you got your dog back. :)

This is the key question. Did he steal the collar from another dog? Did he buy the collar on a spending spree while he was unsupervised? Was it a disguise so he could go incognito? There's more to this story.

Oh, and it's great to hear that you got him back. That's a horribly worrisome situation.

I figure 60,000 alumni during football games? I don't know... that isn't the important part of the story! Hell last Thursday there were at least 5,000 Nebraska fans in town! I didn't fact check, sorry. Thanks for the congrats!

Tyler?

My guess is the other 20,000 people are there putting collars on stray dogs.

I don't have her address. She was driving to work when she found him on the side of the road. Had seen my posters while walking her dog that morning. I was prepared to pay $200. Didn't put the amount on the posters because crackheads in my neighborhood would steal him on purpose for ransom if I did ever get him back.

I have her cell number from when she called me, but that seems a bit like stalking a good Samaritan. She was kind of cute though...

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This is the same dog that the Planet wanted to name shithead:
http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=173931

Though Mr. FAX wanted to name him Barney.

Oh yeah. That is a great commercial.

Yeah, I suppose that would seem "strange" to call her. But hey, if both of u are single... I think it would be ok. It would give u an excuse to treat her to lunch or dinner. ;)

pay it forward, dude

LMAO

when my dog disappears for a while, I always wonder if MY dog is the one I found or some other dog that looks just like it and acts cool to me cause it knows if found the gravy train.

you live in east campus?

Looks like you followed Billy's advice:

NSFW

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Yeah, not quite to Whitegate thank god, but close enough. Some great people watching from my front porch.

Lol nice.

Text her and see if you can take her to lunch to thank her. It's the lowest pressure form of communication and dating.

must have been dognapped and bit the thief in the nuts and got away, probably one of your crackhead neighbors

at least it was a happy ending

:clap:

Glad to hear it all ended well

Great story, good to hear!

He came this -><- close to being chow.

Good thing you don't live in a Korean neighborhood.

Good story, Joe. Good news. I know how it is when you best friend is a canine (boxer). My buddy got out last evening while I was working on the garage door. Scared me cause the street behind my house is busy. He doesn't normally run out but he spotted a flock of birds on the ground and had to attack them. ROFL Then I had to catch him because he wanted to visit some other dogs across the street.

And all this time I left the garage door open while my female boxer was also in the back yard. Amazingly, she didn't come out of the garage. Of course, she ran out of the garage one time when she was still a pup and got hit by a car. Perhaps she learned her lesson early.

ROFL

ROFLROFL

Good news for finding him.

Not sure how you expected someone to call you back with the number scratched out like that. Lady must have some really good eyes.





Congrats.

I'm very happy for you. I love happy endings.

Congraats pretty lucky to get him back.

Why do these stories always have to have a happy ending! Why can't he have found half his dog or something. Or maybe the crackhead neighbors using his dog for training their Pit bull to kill. Or maybe one of those stories where the pet was found in the belly of a shark or the tail hanging out of the mouth of his pet Boa Constrictor.

:shake:

Have u ever thought about looking into a new profession? Just a thought...

Hey! Twin Lakes!

I live up north so the boys go to the new Garth nature area now that it's open, but we used to go down to Twin Lakes all the time. One of ours bolted out the far exit up into the tall grass and we pretty much assumed that was the last we'd see of him (he was a rescue that evidently wasn't ready to go off leash yet...) but we saw him way off in the distance and he finally came trotting back.

Congrats on finding your dog. Everyone gets at least 1 dog scare per dog; glad to hear yours ended well.

I live in Vanderveen so we use the Garth nature area quite often. Actually we like the Garth dog park better than the Twin Lakes location. Seemed like every time we took the mutts to Twin Lakes they would get in the water there and develop a nice case of the runs.

Joe, good to hear that you found your bud.

Happy ending dude, now get over to the vet and have a chip put under his skin.

There's a good chance I've run into you; I live in the 'horse' subdivision immediately adjacent to you (right behind Sonic, etc...).

If you've been there lately, I'm the one with 3 labradors (2 choc adults; 1 black puppy), 1 of whom will not stop accosting people with a tennis ball (he's become almost completely neurotic about that damn thing...) until they throw it, at which point that poor soul has become his new ball bitch.

:clap: Well done.

I'm glad you found Otis, what happened to your best friend?

LOL! I guess my timing has worked out as to not have crossed paths with you at the D.P. We usually take a a couple of tennis balls with us and thus far have not been accosted by any neurotic labs. Although if you were there at the same time you would hear one of our neurotic pups because she can't stop barking in this very annoying, embarrassing, excited manner. I guess she is just so damn happy to be at the park, but oh how I wish she wouldn't do that.

Glad to hear the great story. We had to put my 13-year old labrador retriever to sleep a month ago. It sucked. But reading this makes me happy.

I'm glad you're happy but you're right.


Winning the Lottery wouldn't compare. I'd much rather win 10 mil than find my dog.


I could buy and train a hell of a dog with $10 mil and have more time to take him places in our new boat.....