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Buddy the dog is gone no more

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 12, 2008 at 10:25 a.m.
Updated May 13, 2008 at 11:34 a.m.

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Buddy is reunited with his owner, Mark Hench, in Fort Collins on Saturday.

Photo by Gloria Pollock/Special to the Rocky

Buddy is reunited with his owner, Mark Hench, in Fort Collins on Saturday.

Buddy was taken by bicyclist, according to a neighbor.

Photo by Special To The Rocky

Buddy was taken by bicyclist, according to a neighbor.

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Buddy the lap dog is back in Mark Hench's lap after a months-long odyssey that included a dognapping in California and a mysterious reappearance in Texas.

"He is a wonderful dog, just a complete joy and very well-behaved," said Gloria Pollock, the last of a string of volunteers who brought the Bichon Frise to Hench's doorstep in Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon.

Hench had the bed, the food, the dish and the leash ready for Buddy and immediately reattached to the dog he considered "my little son."

Hench was living in Ventura, Calif., last year, when he bought Buddy from an animal shelter.

"I had him for about three months," Hench said. Then one day someone riding a bicycle grabbed Buddy and pedaled off, according to an account relayed by a neighbor.

For three months, Hench scoured the streets of Ventura, looking for any sign of Buddy.

Hench then got sick and had to move to Fort Collins to be near his daughter.

Months later, Hench was in a car when his cell phone rang.

An animal control officer from Fort Worth, Texas, said a microchip scan of a moppish little dog had identified Hench as the owner. Could he swing right by and pick up the dog?

Well, he was about 750 miles away and disabled.

So, Rescue Angels on Wheels got involved, alerted a few volunteers on their database and arranged a car transport from a Texas foster home to Colorado Springs, then to Highlands Ranch, and finally to the Fort Collins mobile home park where Hench lives.

"We made a brief stop at a groomer in Arvada, and she prettied him up for the big event," Pollock said.

She is hoping Buddy's story brings home two points to pet owners.

"First, the importance of microchipping," Pollock said. Most shelters have a three-day hold before an animal can be euthanized, although the Denver Dumb Friends League and the Boulder Valley Humane Society, to name two, almost always keep the pets until a home is found.

"That microchip saved Buddy's life," she said.

Pollock also said Buddy is "a beautiful example of the wonderful dogs that can be adopted through shelters and rescues."

They're already vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and give the gratification to their new owners that they are saving a life, she said.

Comments

  • May 12, 2008

    1:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    violinga1 writes:

    Yay!!! Glad to hear a happy ending to the story!

  • May 12, 2008

    1:34 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    happymike44 writes:

    GO BUDDY
    You the dog, glad to see you made it back to your family.The people who took him deserve to be tied to a stake on a anthill and covered in honey in honey.

  • May 12, 2008

    2:41 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    buzzman writes:

    Great story-truly man's best friend-finally something positive today and as for the thief-may a garbage truck hit your sorry arse-