When lddr, for the love of louie, and social media collide

by Jayme Resler, LDDR foster/volunteer

On October 7th, a 14 year old dog named Maggie was returned to her owner after being missing since October 2nd.  While this is a wonderful story, how this all came about is nothing short of amazing.

A couple of days ago, I received a call from my mom.  She informed me that her friend Mike had an abandoned dog and that he needed to find the dog a home.  He knew that I volunteer for a wonderful rescue that stops at nothing to save dogs.  I asked her have him email me the details, knowing that everyone at Last Day Dog Rescue would be more than willing to help.  Below is an excerpt of the email that I received:

“The dog we now call Lucy was found abandoned.  Lucy is an elder dog, gray and black with freckles. She is missing a toe (right rear) and still has the stitches. She also has a stitched wound on her neck. Lucy was abandoned at the Jets Pizza on Wayne Road near Hunter in Westland. I don't know how this transpired but a customer wrote this person a note saying “Take better care of your animals or give them to someone who will!” He wrote “fine”, crumpled the note and threw it and the dog out of the car. I hope you will be able to find a rescue for her.”

maggie- blogI then posted this information on the LDDR Volunteer Forum on Facebook, hoping to find a foster for her.   Leah, the creator of For the Love of Louie page, a page devoted to reuniting dogs that owners have reported missing, immediately commented on the post stating that she had been networking a dog with a toe amputation and that this sounds like the exact dog they are looking for.  She asked that I check with Mike and see if he could make contact with the family because if this is the same dog, she is NOT abandoned, she wanted home with her family very much.  I then checked my email a few hours later and had an email from Mike stating that he had made contact and that the dog has been returned to his owner.  He informed me that the charge of abandonment and throwing the dog out of the car was third and fourth hand information by many parties.  When he returned the dog to the owner, Maggie was so happy to see him, and that the owner seemed like a real gentleman who was thrilled to have his dog of 14 years home. His wounds were due to a cyst removal, and a tumor.  He was comfortable leaving the dog there, and he realized that he did not have all of the facts, most of the information he had was nothing but assumptions.

I sent Leah a message, asking her how she came about learning that Maggie was missing.  She responded to me quickly saying:  “I created the For the Love of Louie page.  I’ve networked thousands of displaced animals. I’ve seen so much that I’ve learned to operate with the FACTS only.  In your case, I suspected that there may have been information lost in translation.  As soon as I read that she was missing a toe, my memory was triggered!  I knew I had a missing dog that had recently had surgery.  Physical condition, location and time must be looked at broadly – facts are not always present.  I try my best to stay on top of as many missing / found animals as possible. The more animals we can return to their homes, the more space we have preserved for animals that genuinely do not have homes.”

The wonderful thing about LDDR is that when we hear of situations as this, we immediately take action.  Everyone is on board to save any dog that is homeless, regardless of age, injures or temperament.  I am so happy that Leah saw the post about Maggie on the LDDR forum, or this reunion may never have transpired.  We are all in the business of saving dogs, what could be better?

Because of Mike, clearly an avid animal lover,  the power of Social Media and Leah from Love of Louie, this dog is now  back in his warm home with his loving family today.  LDDR and For the Love of Louie came together through Facebook, to bring a lost dog home.  I hope that we will have many more wonderful stories like this in the future.  Every dog deserves a safe, loving home.  I’m so glad that Maggie is back home with hers.  We wish there were more happy endings like this, but in the cases where the stray dogs of the world are in fact strays finding themselves at a shelter with no one seeking to look for them, Last Day Dog Rescue will continue to pull as many dogs as we can out of that situation. We will continue to advocate for those without a voice and without a guardian and on this day that advocating led to a reunion that we are so happy to have even played a small part.

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