LOS ANGELES – A loyal Labrador retriever named Maggie, who was videotaped as she guarded the body of a yellow Lab hit and killed by a car in Southern California, was reunited with her family Monday.
A good Samaritan saw what was happening on Hacienda Boulevard in La Puente last Wednesday, called officers, put traffic cones around the dogs and took the video that touched hearts across the country as it made its way around the Internet.
Before Maggie’s family claimed her Monday, the dog was spayed and microchipped. The name of the family was not released.
Dozens of people called or visited the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control shelter in Baldwin Park offering to adopt the sweet-natured dog. The good Samaritan was the first to fill out paperwork.
Officers were getting the dogs out of the street at the same time Maggie’s family was at the shelter looking for her, said Capt. Aaron Reyes, deputy director of the department.
Maggie is expected to go home Tuesday after shelter workers inspect her home, Reyes said.
No one knows who the yellow Lab belonged to or where Maggie met him, Reyes said. He had no license or microchip.
Maggie’s loyalty to the dead dog was so poignant and so risky that shelter workers nicknamed her Grace, as in “Amazing Grace.” The video shows traffic speeding by just a few feet from the dogs.
Maggie is about 2 years old and the family’s only dog, Reyes said. The family includes children.
Maggie’s family wasn’t the first to show up at the shelter Monday claiming the dog belonged to them. But it was the first family to have papers to prove it and to call the dog Maggie. Shelter workers remembered the family.
Even though she was groggy from surgery, the dog responded immediately to her name and the family, Reyes said.
The family will be issued citations for having an unregistered dog and allowing it to run loose and will have to pay nominal room and board costs, Reyes said, but the shelter did the surgery and implanted the microchip for free.
The good Samaritan who had hoped to adopt Grace was notified, Reyes said, and his reaction was “understandably bittersweet.”
“He had a lot of the same questions we did. How could they not have a license? Had Maggie had an ID tag or microchip, she could have been spayed and been back home last week,” Reyes said.
Meanwhile, adoptions are all about foot traffic, he said, so he’s hoping some of those drawn in by Maggie might consider leaving with another dog, cat or rabbit.
Baldwin Park is 18 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
I can understand how the Good Sam feels…a 2 year old unspayed dog with no id or collar running loose. He did the responsible and conscientious act in rescuing her, and one can only hope her real owners become real responsible now..
Very very disturbing the dog was returned to this family that was “looking for” their dog.
The shelter and vet should have made the determination that they were unsuitable to have the dog and allowed the adoption to the samaritan. I’m disgusted and repulsed by their decision.
Your reply was so righteous!. Have you never made a mistake? Well, this family did and by the grace of G-d they got their dog (family member) back. They are now much better informed. And hopefully this story brought more awareness to the fact that spay/neuter is HUGELY IMPORTANT!. Find a little compassion – eh?
and it WAS by the Grace of our Great God that the Dog was protected and did not suffer the same fate as its companion, due to the compassionate action of a good samaritan.
It remains to be seen if the family has learned a lesson; you may call my personal feelings of compassion for this animal’s best interest as “righteous” (from one fellow christian to another, btw), but, as an employee of a local animal rescue organization, I have seen these incidents time and again, where promises are made and broken by irresponsible pet owners, and it is then too late. “the dog got out again”. This incident was brought out by the media; think about all the other cases that go unreported and the ending is not as happy, where the dog is returned back to a life of neglect and abuse.
When the chance comes to give the precious animal a second chance at life in a warm and loving new home, as could be in this case, it is squandered. Call me righteous, but I see that God sent that samaritan to rescue this dog, and the compassionate seasoned animal rescuer in me tells me that the dog deserves to go to a safe place.
I agree with you……so many questions unanswered about this dog and family. She was missing for 2 weeks?……..bonded with another stray in that time? My first thought was that they were BOTH owned by the same person……..but no one mentions the yellow lab. I know labs are loyal, but I suspect these two knew each other longer than 2 weeks…….isn’t it a coincidence that TWO labs are roaming loose, no collars, or tags, and just find each other? Maybe this makes me judgemental, (I HAVE made mistakes, and had to bail my babies out of the pound for getting out of the yard…..but have learned my lesson, and take special care now) but it makes me suspicious of the so-called owner. Too bad this story doesn’t tell of their reunion……and were they required to pay the vet bill in order to get Maggie back? I would hope so.
Righteous?????Fyinterest is dead on with her comment!
Sometimes dogs get out, don’t be so judgemental, things happen…..I had two dogs come running up to me in my own back yard, it was in the middle of winter in a snow storm…I leashed them both and followed their tracks to the street they lived on…but in the meantime..the owner was out looking for them. As I was walking towards their street, the owner saw my flash light, it was 8 at night….those dogs were lucky that they picked me to come up to. Turns out, they kids left the gate open…out went the dogs……schitt happens…
Have any of you that think the owners are at fault NEVER made a mistake? give me a break, we all or the one’s that care for animals, have had things happen that can’t be explained, but not to return a family member, to all of you who think that the person that called animal control should have the dog Maggie, just remember that some one is watching you DO NOT LOSE OR LEAVE YOUR CHILD SOME WHERE YOU SHOULD NOT OR DON’T FORGET THEM!!!
I agree. I had 3 dogs and we had a completely fenced backyard that we thought we had insured they would never be able to get out. However, one decided to dig a hole and somehow also unraveled a frost fence section. Unbelievable, but he did. We were both at work at the time. Both males then escaped but the female stayed. It took 3 days to find one and 11 days for the other. But I got them both back through constant searching day in and day out. We posted flyers, searched the streets from 6am until 11pm, checked with every shelter in a 50 mile radius. I took 3 days off work just to search. We were very lucky to get them both back unharmed. We then re-enforced the fence and it never happened again.
I don’t think we can judge the family as we don’t have all the details. I too am involved in animal rescue and our emotion wants us to condemn first and ask questions later. Sometimes things just happen and unimformed pet owners learn. If this is not their first offense then the shelter should not have returned the animal. If it is, then they learnt a very valuable lesson that hopefully they can share with others.
This dog may have been sent by god to remind us of loyalty. Don’t question what you don’t know for sure and just have faith that it all happened for a reason.
God bless this dog for being loyal to the end….something that a lot people can’t even do. I just hope and pray that this family that claimed her truly deserves this loving dog.
No one knows the circumstances..
Maybe the family is having financial difficulties..
Given the option of spaying & registering the dog, or being able to feed my family for a week..The family (including pet) wins hands down!
And to anyone that says they shouldn’t have a pet if they can’t afford it..
Look into your your young’ child’s eye’s and say “We have to take “Luky” to the pound because we can’t afford to keep her….
The first thing that child thinks is, “I hope they can afford to keep me! ; and then look at her dinner plate that night when she puts half of her food aside for the dog, and says “she can share mine”
No one can make any judgements about the family until they have ‘ALL’ the facts.
I’ve know what it’s like to go to bed hungry so your kids have a full belly.
Did I give up the family pet.. NO, he’s part of the family too!!!
I am not a religious person, but I do recall the bible saying “Judge not and ye shall not be judged”!
So until you have walked a mile in their shoes; YOU do not have the credentials to to assume anything!
I wish the good sam had just taken her home…..
it wasn’t just a matter of the dog “escaping” but no microchip, no registration, no rabies tag(which can be traced to the owner) and no collar, no id equals irresponsibility.
Yes dogs get out, on occasion mine have managed an escape but everyone one of them has an id tag, collar and microchip. I alert the shelters, all the vets. groomers and animal control. friends, put flyers out, those tags are what returned them to us within a day.
We are always picking up dogs running along the highway, i get so pissed off when they have no id, that means either we keep them or have to take them to the shelter which we despise, right now we have 6 dogs all recused off the highway with NO collars or id.
Oh yea plus they didn’t even have her spayed, wish she would have gone home with the person who saved her.
Seems a little coincidental that the other dog was also a lab without any identification and these dogs were so bonded, my gut says they both belonged to the same family.
I have an excoworker who hung himself at the park underneath a short tree with the dog leash of his only devoted and loyal dog named Sunny. The suicide was on June 19th, 2012 but body wasnt discovered till next morning around 5am. Sunny tried his best to save his master and god only knows what he had to witness during this horrific ordeal.
Now the wife of the deceased wants to get rid of the only loyal trusted companion of her husband. This is so sad:'(