Lucy disappeared from Dolores Park the other day. Witnesses report details that indicate the possibility of some kind of dognapping ring.
Full story after the jump:
my daughter was with our dog lucy tuesday 9/1 at dolores park–just south of the tennis courts. she was reading and lucy was running around in the former soccer field when at about 2:30, my daughter got up to leave. it had been about 15 minutes since she had last seen lucy—I know, not the ideal dog guardianship. anyway, lucy had strangely disappeared. she’s a border terrier–small, scruffy, benji-like dog. she’s really smart and usually only crosses streets when she’s led. so it would be highly unusual for her to leave the park. after searching throughout the park, my daughter called us, in tears. we raced over and looked, also, throughout the park. I did a little searching between the park and valencia, but my first thought was that she had to be in the park somewhere. unless someone put her on a leash or had been feeding her and called her out of the park, she wouldn’t normally exit on her own.
after finally realizing she was not in the park, I made the posters and we returned to the park to start posting them. at that point, someone in the park told my daughter that out of his window on church/18th st, at about 2:30, he saw two women with a dog that looked like lucy and one said to the other “don’t you think someone will be looking for her by now”. we then focused on that area and hoped that someone had temporarily put lucy in their apartment pending a call to animal care and control. but that never happened.
the photo on the poster is actually a few years old. she’s put on a little more weight and now weighs about 22 or 24lbs I think. she loves playing with balls, often two at a time and will bark when she wants you to throw one. her favorite game, though, is to have you get the tennis ball from her mouth before you throw it. she loves being rubbed and will lightly growl when you stop. she is so friendly that she is like the dog for our whole block. and, of course, the kids are devastated.
since she disappeared from dolores park on tuesday, we have searched for her and put up posters. many of the posters have been taken down. in some neighborhoods, like duboce triangle, someone from a neighborhood group would take them down as soon as they were taped up.
after about 24 hours, the situation changed. no one had called the police, the SPCA (or animal care and control), the mission pet hospital (on one of her tags) or us (the other tag). thursday morning, a guy called from a payphone at brainwash at 7th and folsom to say that a homeless guy with a cart had a dog that looked like lucy. when I raced over there on my bike, the caller described the homeless guy as wearing a hawaiian shirt and a chinese coolie hat. he said he had found the dog at “dolores church”. I raced off, thinking I was going to catch up with him in a block or two. I circled south of market, civic center plaza, the tenderloin, the embarcadero, and mission bay for several hours, helped by several others who had joined in. unfortunately, I still have not seen this guy, though others have said he is a homeless regular.
at this point, our family, friends, neighbors and others have put up posters and searched for her. we’ve been given many examples and profile possibilities, but at this point, it’s tough. we’re really not sure what to look for–it’s hard to understand why someone would take a dog.
more photos of lucy here.
As a duboce triangle resident I apologize on behalf of my obnoxious and heartless neighbors – and I’ll keep an eye out for Lucy ’round here…
that really sucks, but i guess this is another reason why dogs should be leashed up in DP. hope you find her!
FWIW, this flyer was still up at Duboce & Walter (bet Sanchez/Noe) as of 7:30 this morning.
My neighbor had her dog stolen by a crazy homeless person. She got it back– the thief didn’t make much effort to hide. No organized ring of dog thieves, just a crazy person.
Oh, and it was leashed, but she’d tied it to a post for a second to pick something up from a store.
Of course, someone that doesn’t pay any attention to their off leash dog in a NON-OFF LEASH AREA of a public park is going blame “dognappers”. When the real culprit is a careless, indifferent dog owner.
Hopefully, Lucy is with someone that actually cares about her.
I am a dog owner. When my dog is off leash (in the proper areas of the proper parks), he never leaves my sight and I have exceptional verbal recall of him.
THAT is what a good dog owner does, not use the non-off leash area of a public park as your dogsitter and public toilet…
you’re a dog owner, and a dick.
Dude, for all you know that kid could be like 12 years old. Ass.
For as animal friendly as SF claims/seems to be, I see far, far too many dog owners who have their dogs off leash (in unapproved areas) who have no control over their pet. I saw a pit bull bite his “master’s” face in Dolores Park. Dolores Park is not an off leash dog park.
If you take your dog off leash, you better damn well be in control of him or her at all times. That is far from what I typically see in San Francisco parks.
I might know where that dog is. somebody has been playing with a dog like that in front of the Alder hotel, 6th and Minna the last few days
But I’m not sure if it’s the same one. I’ll get some photos tomorrow and post them
If it is and you go to reclaim it, do not let them extort you for money. This happened to a friend of mine. Simply tell them the animal is micro chipped (whether it is or not) and that you’d be happy to let the police come resolve the matter.
well, I don’t think it is the same dog. From memory it was pretty close, but not quite
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9640932@N04/3910584371/
if there’s still any doubt, I have a bunch more photos
dear jeff,
if you can post the pictures that would be great. thanks for all your help.
Probably some kidnapping ring that specializes in selling dog in order to be converted into doggy meat probably for some of the restaurants in the Mission.
Don’t Believe me look it up!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat
http://itstheirdestiny.2kat.net/hawaii.html
Lucy’s back with her people now. Self-righteous know-it-alls who lack empathy may carry on …