By Ross Farrow For News-Sentinel
UPDATED: LODI, CA – A family is reunited after their guide dog puppy made a great escape. Three month old Gannon managed to escape his Lodi home last Friday, through the kitty door.
When Alexis Green, his raiser, realized he was gone, she called Guide Dogs For The Blind and started scouring the neighborhood. She made missing posters and put them up everywhere. The next day, someone mentioned they had seen a couple pick up a black puppy that was wandering the neighborhood.
Fortunately, a friend of the couple had seen the poster and told them about the missing guide dog. The couple had taken Gannon to their home in the Valley Springs area. After an agonizing week without Gannon, Alexis finally received a call Friday that her precious puppy was safe and sound. The two were reunited, and the kitty door Gannon escaped from has been downsized.
Original Story:
A 3-month-old puppy who was being trained to become a guide dog has been missing since Friday.
Lodi-area resident Cyndy Green said the puppy her daughter was training escaped from their property in the area of Armstrong and Davis roads, southwest of Lodi. However, on Saturday, a dog matching his description was seen between 1:30 and 2 p.m. on Thornton Road, north of Eight Mile Road, according to Jim Russell, a community field representative for Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Fifteen to 30 minutes later, someone reported seeing a similar-looking dog being picked up and put in a car, but it hasn’t been determined if it was the missing dog, Russell said. There was no description of the car.
Green and Guide Dog officials searched the area Saturday for the dog, Russell said.
The dog, named Gannon, is a black male Labrador Retriever. He has a black collar with a Guide Dog tag and has tattoos in both ears (small dots that consist of letters or numbers).
Gannon is owned by Guide Dogs for the Blind. He and other dogs are raised in homes until they are 15 to 18 months old. Then they begin their formal guide dog work and are matched with blind people, said Guide Dogs spokeswoman Denise St. Jean.
While in family homes, the dogs are trained to have excellent house manners, and family members socialize them by introducing them to new people, places and experiences, St. Jean said.
Anyone who may have seen Gannon may call Russell at 669-7657 or Guide Dogs for the Blind at (800) 295-4050.
Nov 3, 2009 - View Comments
