Nov 19/02 Kudo has been missing since Oct 26th from South Gloucester, 6 m. south of city. Possible sightings (on garbage days !) have been on 31st and 7th.. These were 3 miles north, then 3miles east. I have done the usual mailbox drops, mail outs thru postman, Humane Society,newspaper ad, door to door, drive and call, etc. Other than the sightings,no luck.

He is 8 years old, neutered male, 85 pounds, black, soft coat, a friendly goof, with short - docked - ears, and with a non standard Bouvier haircut:his sloppy chops have been trimmed back. His coat is about 3 inches long all over. When lost, actually he took off chasing deer that came to the house,he was wearing a black nylon web collar, with a brass City of Ottawa tag and a Blue Glebe Vet Hospital vaccination tag (#174). He may also have a silver-chromed snap-lock on the collar too. 

His owners had recently moved from the south end of Ottawa to the country, so he may not have had his bearings established yet.

If anyone has ANY info, pls contact me ASAP!! at pitabouv@sympatico.ca Permission is granted to repost widely and freely - lets get Kudo home!!!!

Nov29/02  I was contacted yesterday by another wonderful rescuer that there was a male bouvier in the Brockville HS.  I contacted the shelter asking for more info (the shelters in the Ottawa area have been wonderful - they all posted about Kudo being missing!) and forwarded everything to Sharon, Kudo's 'mom' - this morning Sharon contacted me and the dog is DEFINITELY Kudo!!!  He'll be home for Xmas!!!

In the weeks before he disappeared, Kudo had been staying "in the country", at Sharon's mother's place, as an "outside dog". The property has an apple tree nearby, and one of those Friday nights, a few local deer came by, looking for food. Kudo broke free of his chain and headed off in pursuit.

We spent weeks printing lost-dog notices and posting them everywhere we thought he might be. We became familiar with most of the rural postal routes south of Ottawa, and talked to lots of very helpful people along the way (all of whom have dogs). There were one or two sightings of a Bouvier on the loose, enough to keep us going, but after a couple of weeks those stopped. As a last resort, Sharon went looking on the Internet for shelters, associations, anything that would offer a glimmer of hope. One of those contacts turned out to be Margo, who posted Kudo's description with all her contacts.

The humane society in Brockville, 70 miles away, responded that they had a dog that fit the description. Margo put us in direct touch with them, and we made positive identification from a couple of other characteristics that weren't on the original description. Any lingering doubt was erased when they asked us whether he had "issues with cats" (meaning that he'd tried to run amok among the cats at the shelter!).

We went and picked him up the next day, Saturday. The full story, as we found out, has some wonderful ironies:

It turns out that:

We missed more meals than Kudo did. While we spent all those nights stuffing rural mailboxes with lost dog notices, he was comfortably ensconced at the Brockville humane society. He was there for three weeks. During that time, they gave him a bath, trimmed the burrs off his coat, fed him, walked him twice a day and sheltered him.

He was picked up about a day after he disappeared, by a farmer from Kemptville (about 40 minutes south of Ottawa) and turned into a farm dog for a couple of weeks. It looks like the farmer had a larcenous streak because Kudo's tough nylon collar (with ID tags) was gone by the time the farmer brought him to the Brockville humane society two weeks later (and wouldn't leave his own name)

What got the farmer to bring him to the Brockville humane society? It turns out that the farmer also had a chicken coop, and put his newly-'acquired' dog in charge of it. What he didn't know – but soon found out – was that his new dog finds live chickens very tasty. But hey, we could have told him that – pity he didn't ask. He had the tags…

'Uncle' Josh and mum Sharon