Hi everyone,
For those of you who read our blog about losing our favorite buddy “Christian”, I would like to report that we finally have her back and I will get back to business with our BudgetBuster money saving tips. But for now, I must tell you about the miracle that transpired in getting Christian back.
As some of you may have read in our last blog, our dog Christian was stolen from my wife’s car while we were in Los Angeles helping her uncle with his will. The tragedy behind it all was that we reside in San diego, approxiamately 180 miles away from where she was stolen. It was a very discouraging trip back to San Diego after leaving Los Angeles without our little buddy. Before we left LA we put up a few fliers explaining what happened, and we informed the USC University Village authorities of what happened because there was a camera directly over our car that could show the whole incident happening. The two DPS officers who took our information and brought the cameras to our attention were both comforting and reassuring that they would do everything they could to help, including looking out for our dog when they were on duty. They were great!!! We were hopeful to say the least after discovering the camera. To my wife and I it would be our greatest asset; at least that’s what we thought. But after a few days of waiting for a call back from the DPS supervisor, he informed us that the camera above our car could not distinguish whether people caught on camera were men our women and therefore he could not help us. I was floored at his explanation and I vow to get to the bottom of that in the near future. My wife and I scoffed at the idea that a major university was using sub-par security cameras to keep students and residents in the area safe from criminals. Our belief is that DPS supervisor Mike Jurdi never looked at one second of the video.
That news did not deter us, but drove us to take matters into our own hands knowing that we were dealing with such a inadequate department supervisor. We immediately took action after our disappointing new and began registering Christian with online resources. There were a total of 85 faxes sent out to various agencies, including news media, radio stations, and animal shelters. On top of that, we sent out alerts on MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. We also placed her on the AVID HOT LIST. AVID is the company that works with animal shelter to place chips in your pets that contain the background of the pet, including who owns the pet. This prevents people from registering your pet as their own as well as alerting owners if their pet is turned into an animal shelter anywhere in the country.
One of the places we registered Christian was on HelpMeFindMyPet.com, an online register for pet owners who lose their pets. They were pivotal in how we found Christian, but it was a miracle how everything transpired. When Christian was registered with HelpMeFindMyPet.com we had to fill out a form describing what happened along with personal information about her. I included my personal phone number which I later learned that I was not supposed to do, but it was this mistake that got Christian back home. That mistake was seen by the owner of 1-800-Help-4-pets who personally called me to help find Christian. She was both encouraging and determined about getting Christian back into our arms. From day one 1-800-Help-4-Pets gave us great ideas and advice on how to handle our situation, and personally got involved with our mission. There was not a day that went by that they did not check in to see what the progress was in getting our dog back. Their owner was very detail oriented with how we should proceed with getting Christian home and would not let any stoned go unturned. That was such an unbelievable gesture from someone who had never met me or my dog. She was unwavering with her passion and unbelievable with her creativity. One of the ideas she gave me was to put up fliers wit a reward on it. That seems pretty standard, but what she asked me to put on it was what was unbelievable. I followed her instructions to the smallest of details being that she has over twenty years experience in this area, and I had a whopping two days 
Well, almost two weeks had gone by and there were no responses to our efforts; then we got a call on Monday, August 11th taht changed everything. At around 10pm 1-800-Help-4-Pets gave us a call stating that someone was on the line, and she believed that she had seen Christian with a homeless African American woman. This was awesome news, but strange because the person who stole her from my wife’s car was white with blond shoulder length hair. Nevertheless, we were estatic about the news. 1-800-Help-4-Pets asked the person to return to the scene and call us back to makes sure that the dog was Christian. That’s when things went south. She called back and told us that the woman had disappeared along with the dog that looked like Christian. Still, I was optimistic.
Then on Friday, August 15th at around 11pm, I was awakened by a thud from upstairs. I went to investigate what had hit the floor and discovered it was my cell phone. When I looked at it, there were 6 missed calls from a Blocked ID, so I checked my voice messages to see who was so anxious to reach me. It was 1-800-Help-4-Pets, so I immediately called them back to see what the fuss was about. When they answered the phone, I could hear an obvious tone of excitement and hope from the owner. She immediately asked me what type of tags that Christian was wearing when she was stolen. I told her that one was silver and the other was blue.
She whispered with excitement, “Melvin, I think we found your dog. A woman is on the phone and believes that she has Christian.”
We went back and forth with a series of questions which were all answered with positive replies. My heart began to race as I thought of the possibility of getting my buddy back. I got so loud that it woke my wife.
She asked, “Who are you talking to? You are very loud.”
After she discovered what was transpiring, her eyes lit up with joy. There was a slight chance that our little buddy was coming home. I was so excited that I offered to drive the 180 miles to Los Angeles to get her. But after some persuading from my wife, I stubbornly agreed that is was not a good idea and agreed to meet the finders at 6am the next morning.
As you can imagine, I did not sleep very well that night and overslept. I awakened in panic and rushed to find my phone to let the potential finders know that I had overslept and would be late getting there. They were okay with it, so I got dressed and beagan my 3 hour journey (due to traffic jams) to Los Angeles. I prayed the whole way up, hoping that it would be a positive outcome. Once I got there I had a million thoughts running through my mind. I ended up talking to a sherriff, stopping by the police station, nervously eating, and praying some more. I did not want to be disappointed.
After I shook off the jitters, I called the potential finders to arrange a meeting place. It took an hour to agree on a location. This made me very nervous and I began to doubt the legitamacy of the people who claimed to have Christian. Nonetheless, we decided that a fast food restaurant would be the best meeting place, and agreed to meet in 5 minutes. Fifteen minutes went by, and I began to get nervous, so I called them again and again without success. All of my hopes began to fade…then my cell phone rang. It was the finder. He stated that he was at the restaurant and wanted to know where I was. I had went across the street to a discount store to kill time. He agreed to meet me there and told me to wait for him; I agreed. 5 minutes seemed like an eternity as I watched every man who passed me to see if he had Christian in his possession. Then the magic moment was here!!!! A short, balding man carrying a tattered looking dog came into focus and almost walked past me. He had my buddy in his arm!!!! I grabbed him and let him know that it was my dog. After a thorough check, I made a positive identification of Christian. She was visibly worn out and tires. She had lost a tremendous amount of weight and did not act like her normally fiesty self.
Although I was sad about her condition, I was elated to have my buddy back. My family is also happy to ahev her back home. She has slept from the time I picked her up and beginning to get reacclimated to her home. This story would not be possible without the persistence of 1-800-Help-4-Pets and Helena who identified the person who stole our dog (that gave us hope). I will be eternally greatful for their gestures of love and kindness.
It just goes to show you that their are still some incredibly caring individuals left and that anything is possible when people work together to reach a common goal.
