In Winnebago County, Ill., Bob and Cheryl Moeller were startled Tuesday to get a call from animal shelter authorities.
Five years after he disappeared from their backyard at a Memorial Day picnic, their son Brent’s beloved purebred collie, Bo, had been found – and the chip in his neck had their family numbers.
When Bo went missing in 2003, the Moellers put up photo posters, canvassed door to door and went to 12 area police departments to spread the news of their missing pup. Strangely, last Sunday morning, the Moeller’s daughter, Melissa, had awakened after a vivid dream that Bo had come home. “She told us all about it, that we were all happy and playing,” Moeller said.
Tuesday, the family got the good news: the prodigal pup was back. At the county shelter, the dog immediately walked up to Brent, and remembered the old training commands as if dog and master had never been parted. Word spread quickly of the Moeller’s reunion with Bo; the animal rescue staff had never seen owner and pet reunited after so many years. Local newspapers and TV stations hovered to document the feel-good story that centered around a boy, his dog – and the chip that reunited them.
At the time they got Bo, then a puppy, the chip wasn’t optional.“It came with the initial shots,” Cheryl Moeller recalled.
Bedraggled and neglected upon his mysterious return, he was in ill health and showed evidence of having been caged. Although his city dog tags had been removed, he still wore the collar that had his name on it. “It’s so awful to think who in the world would do this?” Moeller said.
The Moellers, who are both in Christian ministry as family conference speakers and authors, see the hand of the Almighty in Bo’s account of reconciliation.“It sure makes you believe in miracles,” she said. “We give the credit to God – we believe this didn’t happen by accident.”
In Ellis County, Texas, Jennifer Kingsley saw the chip at work. She noticed an adorable Jack Russell terrier sitting on the running board of an antique truck in her neighborhood. “We were going to take a picture of him with our phone, and he jumped into the car,” Jennifer recalled. After determining that the truck owner was not the dog’s owner, Kingsley and her son Ryan walked the entire neighborhood, knocking on doors to see if anyone had lost a pet. Unable to find his home, they brought him to theirs. Kingsley chuckles when she recalls the dog’s brisk energy and the tendency to leap tall couches with a single bound. “He had so much energy,” she said.
Clearly, the pooch was the apple of someone’s eye. The question was, whose? The Kingsleys took the bundle of energy to the Ennis Veterinary Clinic, where a scan revealed the dog had a microchip that in turn led them to the breeder, who went through records to get in touch with the owner who bought the dog.
Chip to the rescue.
While a chip on your shoulder isn’t a good thing, the right kind of chip on your pet’s shoulder could save its life.
Thanks to new technology, with the simple insertion of a tiny microchip, lost pets can be reunited with their owners. But it takes forethought.At the Waxahachie Animal Shelter, senior officer Cindi Walters has made scanning strays for microchips part of the intake routine.
With every dog that is brought in, a chip reader is used to scan the shoulder area. When the scanner detects a number, she relays that number to the chip company, who then helps locate the owner.
“In the past year, out of 100 or more dogs [taken in as strays], we’ve only had one animal that had a microchip in it,” she said.Walters estimates that out of those same 50 dogs, perhaps half of them appeared not to be strays – they appeared to have belonged to someone.And that’s a heartbreaking statistic she said.
“I’ve got two in right now that no owners have called about, but both have brand-new collars on them, so I know somebody’s owned them somewhere,” Walters said.
Her advice to pet owners? Get your vet to put a chip in your animal. “A collar can always be lost, tags can always be lost, but the microchip is always there,” she said.
At Ennis Veterinary Clinic, Dr. Mac Boyd said the chip is an emerging technology many pet owners haven’t taken advantage of. “It’s a good program – amazing technology,” he said.“We put quite a few in – but the vast majority of pets don’t have them yet, because there’s some expense involved in it. We charge $41 to put on in – it’s not a tremendously high price, but it’s an extra expense some people don’t want to have.” Another benefit is if there’s ever a dispute about dog ownership, the chip can carry the truth about the owner. “It’s like a fingerprint,” he said.
The chip itself is the size of a grain of rice and undetectable, Boyd said.“ The dog doesn’t feel it – it doesn’t cause discomfort. It doesn’t give off signals, it just reacts when the scanner passes over it,” he said, echoing Cindi Walters’ advice to just get the chip put in. “Nobody thinks their pet’s going to get lost, but nationwide, lots of pets find their way back home because of those chips,” Boyd said.
The life you save could be your own dog’s.
E-mail J. Louise at jlouise.larson@wninews.com.
This article originally appeared in the Waxahachie Daily Light.
http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2008/07/21/news/doc4884d630bf097302352268.txt
For more on the true story of Bo's return to his family, see:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=221232
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lost-dogjul16,0,430110.story
http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=181
http://cbs2chicago.com/watercooler/lost.dog.reunion.2.772114.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/us/illinois/cook-county/arlington-heights-PLGEO100100501040000.topic
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/us/illinois/cook-county/arlington-heights-PLGEO100100501040000.topic
Monday, July 21, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Class Menagerie: Delinda Ruffino's just a country girl, at heart
BRISTOL — When Delinda Ruffino moved to Bristol, she realized a life-long dream: Some 29 acres for her horses to play on – and a little miniature horse to remind her of the importance of life’s little things.
“My dream has always been to live on acreage with animals and to have horses on the property ... I’ve always wanted miniature horses, and I even threatened to get them in Lancaster and hide them behind my tall fence,” she said with a chuckle.
Delinda and Carlos Ruffino and their children, Michaella, now 19, and Robert, 17, relocated to Bristol three years ago from Lancaster, where Delinda owned the shop, Delinda Doolittle’s On the Square.
Once she found her Sugar Ridge paradise, Ruffino began to populate it – a miniature horse here, a miniature Zebu cow there.
Little goats, pale-eyed with velvety noses, curious and infinitely nibbly, that will munch on a pant leg or a lock of hair. They are miniature Nigerian goats, technically milk goats.
She has a rooster, and seven hens to lay a steady stream of fresh, fresh eggs. Then there’s Max the Cat. A long-haired tabby, he’s big-boned, even by Maine Coon cat standards, tipping the scale at 23 pounds and as long in the torso as his mistress.
The Ruffino dogs include two dachshunds, a chocolate lab, a Great Pyrenees watchdog and a cowdog cross.
“I had my own little private petting zoo,” she said.
Without unlimited room to branch out, she had no interest in breeding the animals – and they seemed to get along with each other in a sort of peaceable kingdom.
But something was missing.“I didn’t buy them to procreate, like in the Bible - that was God’s idea,” she said with a smile. “But I realized that the animals liked to be with their own kind. I noticed they were kind of lonely.”
She got another miniature cow to hang out with Charlie, the diminutive Zebu. “They were like instant buddies, and they’d go together everywhere,” she recalled. “I got another donkey, and sure enough, the donkeys hung out together. I had the one miniature horse, then I got him a friend. They really like to be with each other. I guess it’s kind of a no-brainer. They had seemed fine without them, but it’s sweet to see them roaming the pastures together,” Ruffino said.
If the resulting configuration of animals tends to resemble something of a land-based ark, Delinda Ruffino has done her job by finding her animals running buddies.
“They all really do like to be with their own kind,” she said.
The Ruffino’s 29 acres overlook the rolling hills of Bristol, where they have become part of the local constellation of neighbors.
“Sugar Ridge is the prettiest road I’ve seen in North Texas – for sure in Ellis and Dallas Counties,” she said. “And the neighbors are just amazing. I have a handful of friends on this remote road, but there’s a real strong community feeling. And think of it, there are people who live in suburbs, 10 feet from each other, and they don’t know their neighbors. They never get together with them,” she said.
Together with three of her fellow Sugar Ridge equestriennes, Delinda Ruffino’s a member of the Polka Cowgirls, an equestrian group that decorates their horses as living floats for area parades.
It’s all far from the bustling world she once knew. Raised in Houston, Delinda had an international modeling career that began in New York, taking her to the West Coast and then Europe and points east – including Germany, Italy, Paris and Tokyo – before landing her in Dallas in 1984.“ Traveling was amazing, it was like an education, and it was my school,” she recalled.
She stayed in Dallas, working as a model’s agent for an agency and then working at an agency representing makeup artists and stylists for print and TV gigs.
In 1988, she got married, she got pregnant – she got retired.
An aspiring artist, she’s turning the pool house into an art studio. She favors a break from the traditional, preferring impressionistic and expressionistic design. Her whimsical works are frequently vividly hued, done in a variety of media, pastels, pen, watercolor and her favorite, multi-media collage.
She’s active with the Ennis Garden Club, and with her church in DeSoto. And the drama training she got years ago? Finally, it’s found a home as well. She has appeared in three Neil Simon plays at the Ennis Public Theatre, and she’s an avid supporter of the theater as well.“I’ve done three plays with Bill Rhoten – I really love that theater,” she said. “I’d love to do at least one a year.”
“My dream has always been to live on acreage with animals and to have horses on the property ... I’ve always wanted miniature horses, and I even threatened to get them in Lancaster and hide them behind my tall fence,” she said with a chuckle.
Delinda and Carlos Ruffino and their children, Michaella, now 19, and Robert, 17, relocated to Bristol three years ago from Lancaster, where Delinda owned the shop, Delinda Doolittle’s On the Square.
Once she found her Sugar Ridge paradise, Ruffino began to populate it – a miniature horse here, a miniature Zebu cow there.
Little goats, pale-eyed with velvety noses, curious and infinitely nibbly, that will munch on a pant leg or a lock of hair. They are miniature Nigerian goats, technically milk goats.
She has a rooster, and seven hens to lay a steady stream of fresh, fresh eggs. Then there’s Max the Cat. A long-haired tabby, he’s big-boned, even by Maine Coon cat standards, tipping the scale at 23 pounds and as long in the torso as his mistress.
The Ruffino dogs include two dachshunds, a chocolate lab, a Great Pyrenees watchdog and a cowdog cross.
“I had my own little private petting zoo,” she said.
Without unlimited room to branch out, she had no interest in breeding the animals – and they seemed to get along with each other in a sort of peaceable kingdom.
But something was missing.“I didn’t buy them to procreate, like in the Bible - that was God’s idea,” she said with a smile. “But I realized that the animals liked to be with their own kind. I noticed they were kind of lonely.”
She got another miniature cow to hang out with Charlie, the diminutive Zebu. “They were like instant buddies, and they’d go together everywhere,” she recalled. “I got another donkey, and sure enough, the donkeys hung out together. I had the one miniature horse, then I got him a friend. They really like to be with each other. I guess it’s kind of a no-brainer. They had seemed fine without them, but it’s sweet to see them roaming the pastures together,” Ruffino said.
If the resulting configuration of animals tends to resemble something of a land-based ark, Delinda Ruffino has done her job by finding her animals running buddies.
“They all really do like to be with their own kind,” she said.
The Ruffino’s 29 acres overlook the rolling hills of Bristol, where they have become part of the local constellation of neighbors.
“Sugar Ridge is the prettiest road I’ve seen in North Texas – for sure in Ellis and Dallas Counties,” she said. “And the neighbors are just amazing. I have a handful of friends on this remote road, but there’s a real strong community feeling. And think of it, there are people who live in suburbs, 10 feet from each other, and they don’t know their neighbors. They never get together with them,” she said.
Together with three of her fellow Sugar Ridge equestriennes, Delinda Ruffino’s a member of the Polka Cowgirls, an equestrian group that decorates their horses as living floats for area parades.
It’s all far from the bustling world she once knew. Raised in Houston, Delinda had an international modeling career that began in New York, taking her to the West Coast and then Europe and points east – including Germany, Italy, Paris and Tokyo – before landing her in Dallas in 1984.“ Traveling was amazing, it was like an education, and it was my school,” she recalled.
She stayed in Dallas, working as a model’s agent for an agency and then working at an agency representing makeup artists and stylists for print and TV gigs.
In 1988, she got married, she got pregnant – she got retired.
An aspiring artist, she’s turning the pool house into an art studio. She favors a break from the traditional, preferring impressionistic and expressionistic design. Her whimsical works are frequently vividly hued, done in a variety of media, pastels, pen, watercolor and her favorite, multi-media collage.
She’s active with the Ennis Garden Club, and with her church in DeSoto. And the drama training she got years ago? Finally, it’s found a home as well. She has appeared in three Neil Simon plays at the Ennis Public Theatre, and she’s an avid supporter of the theater as well.“I’ve done three plays with Bill Rhoten – I really love that theater,” she said. “I’d love to do at least one a year.”
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