Shiner

Shiner is a 12 year old female Vizla who has been missing from the mid-town area since March 24. I had received a phone call and several e-mails with photos of her, there was a whole community looking for her. Her owner had been by the shelter to see if we had her with no success and with her advanced age had given up thinking they would find her.

I returned this afternoon from a meeting downtown, parked in back of the shelter and walked through the kennels to get to my office. I passed by a run that had a beautiful dog that reminded me of the missing Vizla. Dr. P walked by and I asked her if the animal had been correctly identified as a greyhound as I knew about a missing Vizla. She said it was indeed a greyhound but that there was a young Vizla in the shelter. She then mentioned another dog, one that I had talked to on my out of the building earlier. We went back to her kennel and found an older female with a white face who was scared to death. She backed away from both of us and didn't respond to the name but I was sure it was Shiner.

I went back up to the front office but the lost poster was not on the bulletin board anymore. I remembered that I still had the phone number of the person who first told me about Shiner but all I got was a message machine. He had given me the address from which the Vizla had gone missing so I used an internet reverse directory to get a name - which of course had an unlisted number. Going to a regular phone book gave me a business address and phone number. I talked with an assistant who confirmed that the owner had indeed been missing their dog for more than three weeks. She agreed to call the home and give them my phone number. Two minutes later my phone rang and I was talking with the woman who had been at the shelter. She said she would be at the shelter in 15 minutes. I had Shiner brought up front where I fed her blueberry goodies and calmed her down. Just after 5pm this evening there was a tearful, happy reunion of Shiner and her people. It was a good Monday.