If you love your pet, it is a super excellent idea to make sure your furry friend is wearing a tag with your phone number.
That’s the moral of this shaggy dog story.
Moey, the poodle-y Bichon shih-tzu mix that vanished eight weeks ago while momentarily tied up to a fence post on Perry St., leaving his West Village owners bereft. But Moey was recently reclaimed thanks to an accidental Good Samaritan who had no idea the dog had been stolen.
“We are so, so happy!!!!” Yelena Falk, 49, said in an email.
Falk spent weeks of papering the city with fliers — fielding phony “I found your dog” calls from scammers sniffing around for rewards — and tracking down more than 60 fruitless false leads. On Monday, she finally got a good lead when she received a phone call from a concerned young woman who noticed the neglected dog tied up outside a Flushing apartment building for several days.
The caller phoned the number on the dog’s tag in hopes of reaching her neighbor, who she believed to be Moey’s owner, but Falk answered instead. Falk wormed the address out of the informer and drove to Queens with her 78-year-old mother. After an unsuccessful attempt to solicit assistance from a local police precinct, the dog-seeking duo went to the address she had been given.
“As we got there, I saw my pup all alone, tied up outside — I then did the only sensible thing: Jumped out of the car, grabbed him, ran back to the car and sped off. You can say I stole my dog back!” Falk recounted.
Falk’s 13-year-old son, Ethan, who was devastated by the dog’s disappearance, is returning from camp Thursday, right before his 14th birthday.
“He doesn’t know yet” that Moey has been found, bubbled Falk, adding “This will be one great surprise!”
On a Facebook page devoted to the Falks’ search for the dog, Falk asked people to help rid the city of all the “missing Moey” posters. “Life is good again!” she wrote.
