From the newsroom of The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, Friday, July 18, 2008 ..... 

Case of missing deaf puppy has happy ending

ROSEVILLE – Dodger, the wayward deaf boxer puppy pilfered from the Placer SPCA this week, is back.

A man who identified himself as homeless phoned the shelter Wednesday afternoon and said he had the dog, which a shelter staffer had claimed as her own before it disappeared.

The man declined the SPCA's $2,000 reward and surrendered Dodger behind a fast-food restaurant near Antelope Road. He told Placer County SPCA executive director Leilani Vierra he got the animal from a friend "in exchange for a bottle of booze," she said.

"He didn't give us his name, and he said he didn't want the police involved," Vierra said.

The man told Vierra that he had seen Dodger's story in the newspaper and was touched by the fact that the dog had been tabbed to work with children as part of the shelter's education program.

Dodger was "dirty and smelly" but otherwise healthy when SPCA staffers arrived at the restaurant. "He had a collar and was tied to the man's shopping cart," she said. The man had a bag of dog food and a bowl of water with him.

Vierra offered the man a $100 bill, which he reluctantly accepted. "I thanked him for doing the right thing," Vierra said. "We were so excited. It made our day."

– Cynthia Hubert

Copyright © 2008 The Sacramento Bee

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