In Fremont, Calif., two miniature terrier mix dogs that at first seemed to have been abandoned on the side of the road, were reunited with their owner. Police and animal rescuers say the dogs were not abandoned, the pets were running loose with their leashes still attached to their collars after their owners was spooked by a larger dog.
According to Contra Costa Times, during the morning hours of Sept. 18, 2013, a man was driving in the area of Fremont Boulevard near Gibraltar Drive, when he saw a miniature terrier mix dog fall from a blue pickup truck. The man stopped to rescue the dog and a community services officer who was on the road stopped as well to help the man. Together they waited for animal control to arrive and pick up the pet.
Half a mile away, a second dog that also had a leash attached to its collar was found unattended. The second dog was taken directly to Fremont’s Tri-City Animal Shelter.
“It’s definitely suspicious and odd … to find two dogs, half-a-mile apart, that appear to be from the same family with different accounts of how they were found,” said police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques.
Both dogs had collars and leashes, but were not wearing ID tags and were not microchipped. Authorities issued a community alert and hoped the dogs’ owner would come forward soon.
That same night a woman called the shelter to identify the two miniature terrier dogs. She stopped by the shelter the following morning to claim her pets.
According to Mercury News the woman told shelter personnel she was out on a walk with her pets when a larger dog spooked her. Afraid of the larger animal, she dropped her dogs’ leashes, and the dogs ran away.
Tri-City Animal Shelter always believed that because the dogs had their leashes attached when found, they were not abandoned pets. Shelter personnel were happy the dogs’ owner came forward to claim her dogs.
“We absolutely believe we’ve put the dogs with their rightful owner,” said Bosques.
The story of the “abandoned” terrier generated a lot of interest in the community. This gave Tri-City Animal Shelter a lot of exposure and employees hoped people who were willing to adopt these two dogs, would be willing to adopt other shelter animals in need instead.
Tri-City Animal Shelter is located at 1950 Stevenson Blvd. Fremont, Calif., behind the police department. You can learn more about the shelter at http://www.fremont.gov/index.aspx?NID=90.
