This week, Sgt. Sievert of the South Central Division shared
this great outcome of two lost dogs in his area.
“I’d like to share a community success story involving
officers from South Central and Eastside divisions.
On Saturday, May 27, a family drove up to the South Central station
with two beautiful German Shepherd Dogs in the back of their pickup. They
had almost hit the dogs as they were driving near Tony Marron Park. They
picked up the dogs and checked the area but didn’t locate an owner. The
dogs were wearing matching collars but no tags.
The family thought that the dogs looked like police K9 dogs,
so they came to the station. We advised them that the best course of
action would probably be to take the dogs to BARC, but I contacted BARC and
they said they were currently closed and there was nobody available to accept
the dogs at their facility.
The dogs were both very clean and well-behaved, one being a
male about 2-3 years old and the other being a female about 1-1.5 years
old. South Central Officer Jamaal Martin contacted his classmate Officer
Vanessa Garcia from Eastside. Officer Garcia has a German Shepherd at
home, and she said she could take the dogs for the night until we could get
them to BARC. So we kept the dogs in the South Central radio room until
the end of the shift, and many of the officers enjoyed seeing them and
interacting with them.
On Sunday afternoon, Officer Garcia brought the dogs back to
the South Central station and said they had done very well overnight with her
dog and her family. Officer Sidia Duron suggested that we take the dogs
over to the vet clinic at Petsmart to see if they had microchips. She and
I felt like amateur K9 handlers as we walked the dogs through the store, but
unfortunately they did not have microchips. The vet staff recommended
that the safest thing for the dogs would be if someone could foster them while
we put up flyers to try to locate the owner.
Officer Duron and I drove around the area where the dogs had
been found and did not see any flyers for lost dogs, and we also checked on
several social media sites with no luck.
Officer Garcia said that she was interested in keeping the
dogs if no owner could be found and she agreed to continue to foster them while
we search for the owners. So I kept the dogs in the Desk Sergeant’s
office during the shift and they enjoyed exploring on several walks in the back
parking lot.
Officer Garcia came and picked up the dogs at the end of the
shift, and I did my best to vacuum up any furry evidence that they had been in
the station. J
On Monday, I put up flyers in the area where the dogs were
found and also emailed a flyer to BARC’s lost-animal contact center.
Officer Emilio Reyes also put a notice about the found dogs on the social
media site NextDoor.
On Tuesday morning, I
received a call from Ms. Janette Sosa, who said that she had seen the flyer and
that her two German Shepherds had been missing since Friday. Ms. Sosa
said she believed that someone who had earlier inquired about purchasing the
dogs may have returned and lured them out of her yard. She sent me photos
of her dogs and they appeared to match the dogs that we had. This
afternoon, I went to Ms. Sosa’s residence, which was about two miles from where
the dogs had been found. We compared photos and concluded that the dogs
were indeed hers, and were named “Boy” and “Chica”.
I contacted Officer Garcia and she had her family bring the
dogs to the Eastside Patrol Station this evening, and Ms. Sosa agreed to pick them up
there. I had conversed earlier in the day with Lynette Bodmer, who is the
adoption coordinator for BARC. Ms. Bodmer provided information on free
spay/neuter/vaccination/microchip clinics they are holding this month.
When Ms. Sosa arrived at the station to pick up the dogs, they had a joyful
reunion in the lobby. Ms. Sosa has agreed to make sure the dogs are
microchipped, registered, and tagged to ensure that they will be easily
returned if they are to get out again.
I am very proud of all the officers that were eager to assist
with our efforts to care for the dogs and reunite them with their owners,
especially Officer Garcia and her family, who opened their home and their
hearts to these dogs. In just the afternoon I spent dog-sitting at the
station, I almost became attached to the dogs. I imagine it was even
harder for Officer Garcia to see them go, but it was very rewarding to see how
happy the dogs were when they were reunited with Ms. Sosa.
I think this was a great example of our officers interacting
with the community in a positive way. And virtually all of the
officers that saw the dogs at the station got an immediate smile on their face
and some stress relief during the normal hard workday.
