[nagdu] Manatee man helps lost guide dog find way home to blind owner

[Ginger Kutsch]

Manatee man helps lost guide dog find way home to blind owner
By TIMOTHY R. WOLFRUM - twolfrum at bradenton.com
December 28, 2010 
 
<http://www.bradenton.com/2010/12/28/2837712/guide-dog-lost-found
-reunited.html>
http://www.bradenton.com/2010/12/28/2837712/guide-dog-lost-found-
reunited.html
 
 MANATEE, FL -- Bill Ward has a way with wayward animals.
 
That must be why a guide dog that needed help finding its way
home Sunday turned to the lifelong Manatee resident.
 
Ferris -- a black Labrador retriever owned by Ward's Fair Lane
Acres mobile home park neighbor, Paul Styczko -- showed up on
Ward's doorstep after he was accidentally left outside. 
 
    
Just days earlier, a lost Chihuahua that had eluded the rest of
the neighborhood surrendered willingly to Ward, who owns a pair
of rescue dogs and is known for taking in strays.
 
"They seem to show up at my house," said the 46-year-old Ward, a
counselor at Coastal Behavioral Healthcare. "I guess animals have
a sense for people who have animals and care about them.
 
"I have a kind heart for animals."
 
After spending several hours Monday morning trying to track down
the dog's owner, Ward reunited Ferris and Styczko, a 56-year-old
Salem, Mass., resident who has been blind for 30 years.
 
Styczko is visiting for the holidays. He and his wife have
vacationed in Manatee for 15 years and plan to retire here, he
said.
 
Styczko, a mental health and substance abuse counselor in Boston,
relies on Ferris to navigate his daily 25-mile commute from
Salem.
 
"I was very nervous about what might happen," Styczko said. "He's
a good-looking dog, and I was afraid someone might take him. ...
He's a terrific animal. He's a part of my life."
 
Ferris carried tags with telephone numbers for the guide dog
organization he came from, but Ward couldn't get his calls
answered during the holiday weekend. 
 
Finally, another neighbor saw a Bay News 9 report about Ferris
and relayed Styczko's telephone number to Ward.
 
"He was super friendly," Ward said of Ferris. "He eats like you
wouldn't believe. I don't think he chews. ... I could tell he was
well taken care of. I was pretty distraught, thinking his owner
may not be able to go out looking for him."
 
Styczko said he accidentally shut Ferris out of his mobile home
while doing laundry.
 
Confused, Ferris wandered a block south to Ward's home.
 
Ward said he walked Ferris around the neighborhood, looking for
his owner. But the pair went south, instead of north, because
that's the direction from which Ferris approached Ward's home.
 
Styczko and Ferris were overjoyed to see each other again.
 
"The man (Ward) was walking him down the street, and when he saw
me he got very exuberant and was jumping up and down," Styczko
said.
 
"As soon as he saw his master, he started pulling at the chain,
trying to run to his master," Ward said.
 
Styczko later offered Ward a monetary reward for finding the dog.
 
Ward politely refused, although the two planned to get together
for dinner this week and say they're likely to remain friends
because of their shared occupation and affin