I received a few woofs about this happy story.  A bomb training Australian Labrador, Sabi, went missing a year ago in the Afghan desert during the heat of battle.  A few days ago she was   found by an American serviceman and now Sabi is back home on an Australian base at Tarin Kowt.

Here are the details from The Sydney Morning Herald.

The plucky canine had been missing in action for more than a year and all hope appeared lost, given that she had disappeared into the desert landscape of Afghanistan’s south.

She went missing during a battle that led to Australian SAS soldier Trooper Mark Donaldson securing a Victoria Cross for holding out Taliban insurgents.

Nine soldiers were wounded during the encounter, and the party got separated from the dog during the fight.

Sabi was picked up and incarcerated by enemy combatants before her rescue by the US soldier, identified as John.

Back on the base yesterday, Sabi appeared composed and relaxed, posing for cameras and meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US General Stanley McChrystal.

It’s reported that Sabi is doing fine, no signs of stress.  Welcome home Sabi!

*Photo ADF

Dogster member Rosie has gone missing, here are the details from her good friend, Daisy.

Rosie escaped the morning of 11-5-09 from her pet sitter’s fenced backyard. She actually managed to unlatch the gate and presumably is headed for home. Her owner is one of my best friends and was scheduled to go out of town today hence the need for a pet sitter.

Rosie is an adult, female, German Shepherd with a very black colored face. AC saw her at North Star and Northwest Blvd. at 10:00 AM this morning but couldn’t catch her. If you find her or think you’ve seen her please call 614-297-8380 or 614-787-1405. She is normally a friendly dog but was very scared when she was last sighted and took off running. Please let us know if you see her.

Rosie was wearing a pink gingham collar, she has all her tags on.

Please help me spread the word to anyone you know who lives in the Columbus area. Share this message on Facebook and retweet on Twitter.

We are worried sick for Rosie’s safety.

Thank you for any help!

This is a strange story about a Yorkie who escaped from a house, was found by animal control, and given away as a gift.

It all started when Janet Torren took her 4-year-old dog Shai over to her son’s house for a visit. When the two of them went out Shai managed to get out a sliding door and was eventually picked up by animal control. Torren searched for her beloved dog for 12 days, knocking on doors and making phone calls.

She had called the Stoughton Animal Control many times but was always told her dog was not there. Shai had a microchip so Torren called the company to see if any vets had scanned it in, no one had. However, she decided to call another company and then learned the chip had been scanned by the town pound in Stoughton, the one she had been calling.

Here are the details from Boston.com.

So, once again, Torren called Kristin Bousquet, the town’s animal control officer. There was no answer. After Torren left a message threatening to call police, Bousquet called back and tried to suggest someone else at the pound or the local rescue league may have scanned Shai’s microchip, even though Torren said the company told her that Bousquet had registered Shai.

“It was a continuing change of the story,’’ Torren said. “There was nothing solid to what she was saying. If I asked her a question, she changed the answer. It was one lie after another.’’

After a brief investigation, Murphy found that Bousquet had given the dog to a police officer’s girlfriend, who was planning to move to Florida with Shai. He found that the dog was well fed and in good condition. The officer and his girlfriend, neither of whom Murphy identified, did not know that the dog had been missing, Murphy said.

Torren decided not to press charges against Bousquet, but she was fired from her job as animal control officer last week.

* Pic courtesy David Abel/Globe Staff. Call me crazy, but that doesn’t look like a Yorkie to me.

It started when the five-year-old dog escaped from her owners during a walk and became wedged eight feet down. It wasn’t realized Lucy had gone down a hole until they searched for hours in the New Hampshire woods and couldn’t find her anywhere.

Here are the details from The Sun.

The worried couple alerted the RSPCA, the fire service and the Forestry Commission to obtain special licenses from Natural England to check the sett at Heavens Gate, Shoot Wood.

The fire service set up specialist listening equipment and a “snake eye camera” was sent underground to examine the network of tunnels but could find no sign of Lucy.

The Wests visited the sett every day and then on the fifth day Mr West detected a faint whimper using a listening probe made with a plastic funnel and pipe.

Mr West, 58, said: “The whimper kept repeating itself. At first I thought I was imagining it but then I realized it was for real. It was such a relief.”

She eventually emerged with a very big whimper following the painstaking three hour rescue operation.

The Wests will be making a much deserved donation to the Hampshire Fire and Rescue’s Animal Rescue Team in recognition of Watch Manager Phillips’ actions.  A big thanks goes out to the fire rescue for their outstanding job, without them Lucky wouldn’t have been able to be reunited with her family.

* I couldn’t use the picture of Lucy from the story, due to license restrictions, so this is Lucy from Dogster’s Dog Adoption & Rescue Center.

Here are the details from Mark’s ‘Smile Like A Dog’ blog.

Readers of this blog will remember Raven, a standard poodle I photographed a few weeks ago.

Raven’s owners need your help: She escaped from a home where she was being watched in San Jose California and has been missing since the afternoon of September 30th.

Full details can be found on this page her owners have set up but if you live in or around San Jose or know someone there please be on the lookout for her. Here are the basics:

Monica Vigil Dombeck (510) 387-1367

* She’s a black standard poodle with a non-traditional cut

* She’s friendly but can be initially shy around new people

* She was last seen in San Jose moving along Junipero Serra Lane (parallel and just north of Moorpark; just south of 280) heading East

* There is a $500 reward for her safe return

If you see her or have any information at all about her, please contact

Mark Vigil Dombeck: (510) 235-6979  or via email.

We hope this beautiful girl finds her way home soon.

If any of you live in the Bonaire, Georgia area, the accident happened at the intersection of Watson Blvd. & I-75 (Veterans Parkway).  Sam is a coy dog, chow/coyote mix. She is wearing a collar and new tags, and is also microchipped.

Her owner is still in the hospital with very significant injuries. She has not even been able to put up flyers or go look for her. The dog tends to overheat and the owner is worried she may have gone into shock. The tow truck driver said he saw a dog heading toward Russell Parkway.

Houston county animal control and the police have been notified. If called the dog will most likely NOT come to anyone.  My friend is very worried her dog may be shot since she is a coy dog. She has owned her since she was a puppy. The dog is about 10 years old.

Keep your eyes open for Sam. Leigh is a sweet person, she loves Sam with all her heart, she is her best friend in the world. It would be great if we could help bring Sam back to her so she’s there when she gets out of the hospital.

Please contact owner Leigh at cell 478-972-3431 if the dog has been sighted.

I just  got a message  about two puppies found wandering the streets of Lawrenceville, Georgia.  A good Samaritan picked them up, unfortunately she already has a house full and needs to find a home for these cuties.

Need good, loving home(s). Two female lab mix puppies – approx. 10-12 weeks old.

To my knowledge they do not have shots, nor have they been spayed. Both were found running unattended across from the cometary on Lawrenceville Highway in Lawrenceville area.

I have been helping to care for them for the past week. Both have very sweet dispositions and are amazingly calm for puppies. We have temporarily named them Lola and Yogi.

If anyone is interested please contact Valerie via email or by phone at 770-363-0827.  She is the owner of Best Fit Pet Services, a professional pet-sitting business. If anyone in the area is looking for a caring pet-sitter be sure to check her out.

Sadly, it’s official, California has cut the holding time of shelter dogs from six days to three.  In 1997 the Hayden Bill, otherwise known as the Animal Adoption Mandate, required shelters to hold  abandoned animals a minimum of four days and usually up to six.

The passing of the new budget has undone what this bill was meant to do, give owners time to find their lost pets. It’s not always easy to track down your pet when there are multiple shelters in the area.  Having extra time also gave kill shelters a chance to transfer some of the animals to rescue organizations or no-kill shelters. Now that the time has been cut in half not nearly as many animals are going to be saved.

“It makes a difference because for some animals every day counts,” said Cindy Machado of the Marin Humane Society, which does not euthanize animals that can be adopted. Instead, the society rescues thousands of animals facing death at other shelters.

“The new law will affect a lot of the shelters that we rescue animals from because, especially in this economy, they are bursting at the seams,” she said.

Most Bay Area animal shelters do not kill strays unless they have serious health or behavioral problems – for instance, viciousness – that would make them unsafe to adopt.

Yet many smaller, rural shelters in the Central Valley and in the northern part of the state do not have the space to keep animals longer than required by state law. These shelters are, in many cases, full of pets given up by people who have lost their jobs, seen their homes foreclosed upon, or been forced to move in search of work.

“The places that are overrun with animals don’t have many resources, and now the law will essentially allow them to euthanize animals more quickly,” said Scott Delucchi, vice president of the Peninsula Humane Society. “Probably those shelters were euthanizing animals anyway. It will just be earlier.”

According to this article, published in the San Francisco Chronicle, more than 400,000 dogs and cats were euthanized statewide in 2008.  I realize budget cuts needed to be made in California, but the passing of the new law shows exactly how little value is placed on the lives of dogs, it’s a sad statement about our society.

The one thing to take away from this article is the importance of making sure your dog is properly ID’ed, it could mean the difference between life and death. Microchips remain the most effective way to permanently identify your pet. Keep in mind it must be scanned with a special device, one not available to the public.

We have Dogster’s Together Tag, an innovative pet ID and recovery service.  The tag contains all the necessary information but it also has an ID number which links back to a website, anyone with an internet connection will be able to access it.  If you need to make any changes just go online and update the information.

Even if you don’t live in California it’s imperative to make sure your dog has ID, most lost pets don’t find their way back home. Don’t let your beloved pet become another statistic, part of the 9.6 million animals euthanized nationwide each year.

* Pictured above is Jazzy, she’s been at the Glendale Humane Society for six months and desperately wants a new family to love her. If you think Jazzy’s the girl for you stop by the GHS site to read all about her and get contact information.

Yesterday I posted about the woman who refused to pay the reward she offered for the safe return of her daughter’s chihuahua.

The missing dog was returned by two women after disappearing weeks earlier, they contacted the owner after seeing the online ad offering a reward. The owner would not pay the reward because she suspected they had stolen her dog, why she thought this was not made clear in the article.

This morning I came across an article in USA Today about dog-napping being on the rise.  The American Kennel Club informally tracks incidents and has made the public aware of the growing number of cases in the last few years.

In 2008 there were 71 cases and this year more than 100 have been reported by the media. There are many reasons a dog may be stolen but the primary one is for money. Since thieves know dogs are considered family members they realize the value placed on them. They may be stolen to collect ransom, a reward, or possibly even to sell them for a few hundred dollars. Remember the recent incident in California where a dog was stolen from a car and the owner paid $10,ooo to get her back?

Here are some safety tips from Lisa Peterson (with Linx), she’s the director of club communications for the American Kennel Club and a longtime breeder and show-dog handler.

Prevention:

• Don’t leave your dog unattended in your yard.

• Be cautious with information.

• Never leave your dog in an unattended car, even if it’s locked.

• Don’t tie your dog outside a store.

Recovery:

• Protect your dog with microchip identification.

• If you suspect your dog has been stolen, call the police/animal control officer in the area your pet was last seen.

• Have fliers with a recent photo ready to go if your dog goes missing.

• Call the local TV station, radio station and newspaper and ask to have a Web post put out about your missing pet.

If you’re looking to get a dog and aren’t going to stop by your local shelter there’s a few things to keep in mind. Be very careful of newspaper and internet ads, information can easily be falsified and is hard to verify. Also, watch out for an ad that mentions “relocation fees” or last minute shipping fees.

Don’t buy dogs from roadside stands or flea markets, you have no way of verifying where the dog came from.  If you decide to buy from a breeder check them out thoroughly, visit the kennel if possible.

Go to USA Today to read more important tips and information on protecting your dog from being a victim of dog-napping.

* ADOPTABLE: The cute little guy above is an 8-month-old Catahoula who is being fostered in Richmond, VA. and is looking for a forever home.

The owner of a missing chihuahua in Cincinnati, OH. offered a  $1,000 reward for the safe return of her beloved pet. Carmen Dominguez and Sheila Miller say they found the dog and returned him weeks later after seeing the online ad advertising the reward.

The owner refuses to pay the reward because she thinks they stole her dog. The women claim they picked up the dog when he was about to run into traffic. They say he had no identification.

Here’s where it gets interesting, the women are now suing the owner for not paying out the reward. According to the GrandForksHerald.com the lawsuit, filed by Carmen Dominguez and Sheila Miller, alleges breach of contract and fraud and seeks damages up to $15,000.

I don’t know if the women stole the dog or if the owner just wanted to back out of paying, either way, I can’t imagine suing. So much for just being a good Samaritan and returning the dog because it’s the right thing to do.

Would you ever sue someone if you found a dog and the reward wasn’t paid?  Or do you think the whole thing is ridiculous?  Give me a bark.

There was no picture with this story, the handsome boy above is from Dogster’s Adoption Center. His name is Poindexter and he lost an eye after being attacked by another dog. He is very sweet and loving and in desperate need of a forever home.  The poster lives in Calgary, Canada but he’s being fostered in California. He can be brought to Alberta if anyone there is interested in adopting him. For more info send email to muttsnstuff.