Dog reunited with owners in chance encounter
Published: June 4, 2005
When Walt Disney comes calling for the rights to the saga of Shadow the dog, Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez might ask that Antonio Banderas be cast in the role of the benevolent lawman and animal shelter administrator.
Such is the tale of the pooch from Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood that the studio would be hard-pressed to pass it up.
When 7-year-old Alexis Czerekaviczius walked into the Lake County Animal Shelter in Crown Point with her mother last week looking for a dog to adopt, she bee-lined for a black Labrador mix that had been in the shelter since Dec 30.
“I yelled, ‘Mommy, that’s Shadow,’ ” Alexis said.
Shadow had disappeared from the family’s back yard on Chicago’s southeast side shortly before Christmas.
“We assumed he was gone for good,” said Alexis’ mother, Angela.
That is, until they saw the dog the shelter staff was calling Andy.
For Angela, the tip-off was the pink spot on the hound’s lip, and his familiar hunter green collar.
Alexis recognized the dog’s blue-green eyes.
“He jumped right up and started licking me,” she said.
The Czerekavicziuses moved to a Crown Point home April 15, just a mile from the shelter.
“Alexis really wanted a dog, and I told her we would just go in to look, that we weren’t going to get one,” Angela Czerekaviczius said. “What are the chances?”
There’s even a potential villain in the story.
April Godra, the shelter’s community liaison, said a Cedar Lake resident dropped the Labrador at the shelter claiming to have had the animal for two years.
“At the time, the dog was only a year old, so that wasn’t right, but we figured the owner was just mixed up on the age and didn’t give it much thought,” she said.
Shadow had gone missing from the Hegewisch yard just a week before turning up in Crown Point, so now the shelter staff is not so sure the age mistake was innocent.
“We will cautiously look into it, but there’s probably no way to verify the story one way or the other,” Godra said.
Alexis needs no further investigation.
“I think he was stolen,” she said.
But she is just happy her dog is back, mostly the same playful puppy she knew from before.
“The only thing is, he goes to the bathroom in the house now,” Alexis said. “We have to potty train him again.”
There’s even the poetic timing Hollywood producers so admire: Angela Czerekaviczius said she first found Shadow among a litter of puppies in a Chicago garbage can on Dec. 30, 2003, exactly one year before he was brought in to the the Crown Point shelter.
Godra applauded Sheriff Dominguez, who since taking over the animal shelter has dramatically improved the adoption rate, making the reunion possible.
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