That is one lucky dog
Published: March 16, 2006
Parker has beaten the odds - once again.
The 11/2-year-old pit-bull mix was homeless. Found wandering the streets of Buffalo in September, he lived in the cramped City Animal Shelter for four months before he was adopted around Christmas.
His new owner soon learned that Parker was deaf, but he learned to respond to sign language.
This week, Parker was stolen.
On Thursday, the resilient dog with nine lives was reunited with his owner, Robin Smith, a 38-year-old social worker who lives on Buffalo’s West Side.
“This is a second miracle,” said Anne Bingenheimer-Serravalle, who handles animal adoptions at the city shelter.
“First, it took a while for him to be adopted. He’s thriving with his owner, living a good life, and then he’s stolen.
“Now, the fact that he’s been returned after he was stolen is a miracle” she said. “I believe it’s fate.”
On Monday afternoon, Smith and Parker, a white dog with brown spots, were playing in a fenced-in vacant lot at 19th and Utica streets when he sneaked through a gap in the fence and scurried away.
About 30 minutes later, two girls found the dog a few blocks away and called the phone number on the dog tag, and eventually reached Smith. She was ecstatic.
In the meantime, a motorist pulled up to the girls and said, “Give me my dog.” He grabbed Parker and drove away. The girls were suspicious enough to write down the license plate.
Smith was heartbroken.
“I never thought I’d see him again,” she said. “He’s just so special. He has the personality of a clown, just goofy. And he’s so sweet. He’s a flirt. If you pet him, he’ll roll over on his back.”
The license plate the girls jotted down traced back to a house on Buffalo’s East Side. Police failed to find Parker there.
On Wednesday, Parker’s story was featured on television newscasts, sparking dozens of phone calls to the animal shelter and a reward fund that quickly rose to “a couple hundred dollars,” said Bingenheimer-Serravalle.
On Thursday morning, Smith got a call from an unidentified man, who said he brought the dog into his home after he saw him roaming for hours around Smith Street and Broadway.
That afternoon, Parker was returned to Smith and her boyfriend, Jeff Brennan.
“The man wouldn’t even accept the reward,” said Smith. “I’m still in shock about who would take my dog but I’m just grateful that Parker’s back with us.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
If you like this, you'll love Good Animal News:
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: