Tearful reunion year after dog disappears
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/06/2023 (854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
She’s a lucky dog.
A year after going missing from the family yard — the owner believes she was stolen — Blondie is back with her humans.
“I never gave up. I was always thinking about her,” Ruby Vanasse said about Blondie, the 14-year old Pomeranian.
Mike Thiessen / Winnipeg Free Press
Ruby Vanasse and her family tried everything to locate her beloved Blondie, which Vanasse believed was stolen. A year later, Blondie was seen wandering streets in the North End.
Blondie was returned to Vanasse on Tuesday after having gone missing from Vanasse’s front lawn in March 2022. The family believed she had been stolen because her leash was cut.
Vanasse and her family desperately tried to find Blondie, to no avail.
“Right away my daughter-in-law put posters up all over on the street, she phoned the lost and found, everything”
Of particular concern was Blondie’s kidney disease, for which she needs medication.
After a year, it seemed all hope was lost. Then, a minor miracle happened.
Katie Rimmer-McGuire, a lifelong animal lover and volunteer for Paws for a Cause in Winnipeg and Kismet Creek farm in Steinbach, found a dog wandering around Arlington Street and Stella Avenue.
She nicknamed the dog “Arlene” and set out to find the owner by putting up posters of the dog in the area.
Rimmer-McGuire took Blondie to the vet where she was given a good bill of health, however the veterinarian put Blondie on antibiotics as a precaution and clipped her nails, which had become overgrown.
Vanasse’s daughter, Vicki McIvor, who lives close to the area where Blondie was found, learned about the missing dog. Coincidentally, she has a Pomeranian, which was given to her by her mom.
Her friend told Rimmer-McGuire the Pomeranian might belong to McIvor.
Rimmer-McGuire asked McIvor if her dog had gone missing. She said it hadn’t. That’s when McIvor realized the dog featured in the posters might be Blondie and she quickly called her mom to pass on the hopeful news.
Vanasse called Rimmer-McGuire right away and the two realized the rescued canine was indeed Blondie.
“She had photos, she matched the collar, she had an age and had a name,” Rimmer-McGuire said, “When we called her the name (Blondie) she started shaking and got excited.”
An emotional reunion followed.
“She told me she was praying every day that her baby would come home,” Rimmer-McGuire said about Vanasse.
The two women ended up crying.
“She (Blondie) instantly perked up. She got all excited when she saw her mom again,” Rimmer-McGuire said.
graham.mcdonald@freepress.mb.ca