05/27/2025
*****this horrific true story happened 10 years ago and is still relevant today. Thankfully there was a joy filled reunion with Winnie and her family. Stray holds are for a reason. Do you know what your local city/county/township stray hold is? NOTE: it may NOT be the same as what the state is. The state says 5 - but municipalities are allowed to go over that amount. For instance MLC is TEN days.
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Finding a lost dog is NOT finders/keepers!!
This story saddens us that it happened and happens frequently.
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This is Winnie's Story- written by Winnie’s family.
"Ever think it was okay to play 'Finders Keepers' with an animal you found?? On September 21st our mini-Boxer Winnie went missing. Panic set in as we loaded the kids in the car to drive around town and look for her. Having just gotten a bath she did not have her collar with name tag on. No microchip and no collar, she was out on the streets alone. We scrambled around town up and down every street and began a neighborhood watch as we informed neighbors and people passing by. We posted on this page and many others. We were joined that evening by dozens of neighbors whom we saw out walking their dogs all in the search to find the missing member of our family. With no luck we went to bed knowing that someone must have her, hoping that whomever did would make an attempt to reach us. By Tuesday, we had flyers made, had summoned the help of extended family to reach out to many local businesses, and even got a word out on KBEK radio. We are very grateful they were willing to air our missing dog several times. We then went to our vet thinking that perhaps at some point whomever had her would come in there. With the hopes we had found her, we heard from a vet tech at our regular vet regarding a lady who had come in. She appeared to be a nurse and had a found a mini-boxer matching Winnie's description. Rather than getting a name, they told the lady to make immediate contact to file a report with the sheriffs department and provided a list which had Isanti County Animal Care & Control 's information along with many local shelters. We were in disbelief that they took no phone number for the lady, or even recognized our rare breed of dog from seeing Winnie many times before.
We later were able to watch video confirming this information and we were able to verify she did in fact have Winnie. After we attempted contact with many of the shelters, many of which were hard to make contact, and numerous calls to the Sheriff's dept., we realized that this lady attempted to make no contact. We didn't give up; we also went and made calls to multiple other fosters and East Central Vet, a vet we had never been to before, but my mother-in-law had taken her dogs there for years prior. We received an out pour of support and people willing to listen to our story. We had our signs plastered everywhere, created a news paper article, and had many people looking for her with us. We waited to hear anything. In the mean time, we had a really tough time as a family. Being so close to our animals and with two young kids, they continuously would ask when Winnie would come home and my wife would cry herself to sleep many nights missing her little puppy. Three weeks passed when a miracle happened. Melissa, with East Central Vet, had a customer come in looking for flea medicine for her outdoor cats. The lady began talking about her animals and a dog she had 'rescued' from Cambridge about 3 weeks ago. Melissa played it cool; she remembered our story and began to ask ample questions that would identify this 'rescue' as our much sought after missing family member. Melissa let her know that this 'rescue' may actually be our missing dog and the lady then clammed up, talking about how they were going to rename the dog 'Delilah' and how her teenage son had grown attached to our dog. After more chatting, Melissa had coerced her into contacting us. This lady was caught in her own web of twisted lies.
I talked to her later that night after I had received her info. I attempted to contact her 4 times before she would answer. She went on talking about how she had grown attached and how she had been 'too busy' with her nursing career to try and make contact to her rightful family. She talked about her teenage son growing attached and finally she let me talk... I talked about all and the attempts we had tried to make contact, our sons constantly asking me when she would return, and about my wife crying often, missing her little girl. I asked her why she wouldn't have even attempted to make contact or file a report as directed. Again, I heard she was too busy. This lady was caught in a lie and had a twisted ideology that finding our lost family member was considered a rescue. She made no attempt to find us--Winnie's family. During a time when we were heartbroken and wondered if we would ever find her, this lady was conveying her hurt in having to lose Winnie. This woman is not a hero, but rather an indecent person based on the steps she took and failed to take. Coveting someone's dog is not heroism; one should know better, especially being in a nursing profession that requires compassion. This lady had no compassion for Winnie's owners, or Winnie for that matter.
I am writing this for 3 reasons: 1) to thank those who helped and supported us in helping Winnie find her way home, especially to that incredible vet tech Melissa, who identified her and made the right steps to get her back AND 2) to encourage anyone who had thought about keeping a lost dog as 'finders keepers' to realize that that animal might have someone missing them like crazy and desperately trying to find them 3) I hope that in this somehow we will move the vet/foster/pet control communication into a more fluid process for posting lost animals to making a list for missing animals before letting someone walk out the door, or before an animal is posted for adoption. I'm confident that if a clear protocol was set for all involved in missing animal cases, we would have had Winnie back on day one."
Dog Lovers Minnesota – Lost Dogs, Cats & Pets – PawBoost Community Dogs Lives Matter
