[nagdu] Home Safe! Was Looking for Lost Guide Dog

Tue Dec 14 16:49:47 UTC 2010

Hello Ginger and everyone,

    This is exactly why I was quite angry about receiving a dog who had a 
tendency to escape. Tim was my first dog from SE and had to be chased down 
many times when he was younger. This is something that should have been 
noted by his puppy raiser and corrected prior to him entering guide 
training. I'm pleased to say that like my second dog Ogden Johnny is not an 
escape artist. All the tags, microchips, Pit Bull round-ups, and service dog 
protection legislation in the world won't help if your dog has the urge to 
run away and nothing is done to discourage it.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 6:02 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Home Safe! Was Looking for Lost Guide Dog

FYI. Good reminder for us all to replace tags ASAP!
Missing St. Paul guide dog found by neighbor, reunited with owner
Neighbor finds the runaway retriever
By Rhoda Fukushima and Tad Vezner
Pioneer Press
Updated: 12/13/2010 11:53:13 PM CST

Service dog Spalding, a 22-month-old male golden retriever,
disappeared Sunday in St. Paul s Merriam Park neighborhood.
(Courtesy to Pioneer Press: McDevitt family)A blind St. Paul man
who lost his guide dog in the freezing cold Sunday - and spent
that day and the next wrought with worry - was relieved to
discover late Monday that the dog had spent the night in a warm
kitchen across the street.

About 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Justin McDevitt went to shovel snow in
back of his house in the 1700 block of Marshall Avenue in the
Merriam Park neighborhood. He believes Spalding, a 22-month-old
male golden retriever, followed him outside: When McDevitt went
inside an hour later, Spalding was not there.

McDevitt called for him, but the dog did not respond.

McDevitt immediately contacted the St. Paul location of the
Animal Humane Society and the St. Paul Animal Control Center. His
wife went outside to scour the neighborhood and alert neighbors.
Numerous media outlets picked up the story about the dog, who is
McDevitt's fourth and had only been with him and his family a
matter of weeks.

A resident about a block down saw one of those news reports
Monday evening, and noticed the dog looked suspiciously like the
one that a next-door neighbor had found at 2:30 p.m. Sunday,
running around outside.

"He was just all by himself, and there were people at the other
end of the block, so I thought he was with them," said neighbor
Connie Murphy. "First I told him to go home, and he just looked
at me. Then I called and he came running and just sat down. He
was just the most awesome dog in the whole world."

Murphy, who has two dogs

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herself, walked the dog around the neighborhood on a leash,
asking those shoveling their walks if they knew who his owner
might be.
Everyone shook their head.

"It was cold and getting colder. I took him in to get warmed up,"
Murphy said. First she kept the dog in a kennel, but let him out
when she saw how well behaved he was. Spalding slept the night on
her kitchen floor.

He was wearing a black and red nylon collar but no tags. Spalding
normally wears tags, but they broke off last week when McDevitt
mistakenly hooked the leash into the tag ring.

On Monday evening, Murphy heard from a neighbor that the dog
might be McDevitt's, who lives across the street and two doors
down. She turned on the television, saw a news report and called
McDevitt's wife.

"I think I have your dog," she said.

"I'll be right over," the woman replied.

"She was - zoom - right there!" Murphy said.

Within minutes Spalding and McDevitt were reunited.

"He was real happy. I was real happy," McDevitt said Monday
evening.

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 4:08 AM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org; mn-abs at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Looking for Lost Guide Dog

 From KARE-11 TV:

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Guide Dogs for the Blind is asking for your
assistance in locating a lost dog named "Spalding."

The 2-year-old male yellow Labrador Retriever/Golden Retriever
cross breed has been specially trained to assist his blind
partner in safe mobility. The two have been traveling as a team
since October.

Spalding has been missing from his home since 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
He was last seen on the 1700 block of Marshall Avenue (between
Fairview and Snelling) in St. Paul.

Spalding has tattoos in both ears with his ID number. If you have
any information about this lost Guide Dog, please contact
Graduate Services at Guide Dogs for the Blind by calling
toll-free: 800-295-4050.

Established in 1942, Guide Dogs for the Blind provides enhanced
mobility and quality of life to people who are blind through
lifetime partnerships with Guide Dogs. This non-profit
organization, headquartered in San Rafael, Calif. is the largest
school of its kind and has produced more than 11,000 partnerships
across the United States and Canada. Services are offered
entirely free of charge.

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