Third PA dog gets reunited with owner

(click above to view video)

Ragnar was one of many dogs that ended up at Mollys Country Kennels in Landsdale, PA. Because of the excellent job done by UAN/EARS (at their staging area in Monroe, LA) who posted all the dogs on Petfinder with good clear photos as well as all the ID that came on the dogs, volunteer Nancy Gaffney from NJ was able to match Earle's lost Petfinder record with the Found Petfinder record posted by UAN. Only problem was that by the time Nancy found Ragnar, at the end of December, the record had already been Inactivated by Mollys.

So she contacted Earle and instructed him to contact Mollys immediately to let them know that they had his dog and he wanted him back.

Mollys reply was the same rude, dismissive and completely uncaring reply they have given to others who contacted them about their dogs. He was told that his dog had been adopted and he missed the deadline. Actually he didn't miss the deadline, but contacted them the day before their stated deadline. None of that would have mattered, since they gave away ("adopted") his dog to someone in October!!
Too bad, sorry, get over it was the basic message.

It was also the basic message Nancy and I got talking to Bob Payne and others at Mollys and the ABKA headquarters (the organization that sponsored the flight from Monroe to PA) in January.

Ain't it convenient that Bob Payne who owns Mollys also happens to be the President of the ABKA?? Or at least was the President last fall when all this was going on.

So then Earle sent a letter to Mollys and asked them to please forward the letter to the people who had adopted his dog. Again, according to Mollys own statement on Ragnar's Petfinder record, all adoptions would be final on January 1, 2006 and Earle made contact on December 31.

In August, weeks after the lawsuit was filed in Montgomery County (PA) Court, and in spite of Bob Payne's refusal to return Ragnar to Earle, Ragnar's adopted PA family found out about all this, and were shocked and upset to learn that the dog's real owner had been searching for him and wanted him back.

Bob Payne never did give the letter to them. Yea, that's a shock.

So Ragnar's new family called Earle and talked. They compared stories. They emailed Earle photos of Ragnar taken with their other dog and in the snow last winter.

Soon thereafter I talked to the adopters, and as Earle had said, they are wonderful people. They said that they are very attached to Ragnar and love him but would of course give him back to Earle because it was the right thing to do. And because there is mutual respect and trust all between between the people who love Ragnar, they will continue to foster him until Earle is out of his FEMA trailer and back in his house.

So of course Earle couldn't wait to see was Ragnar and it was decided that he would fly up for Labor Day weekend.

Kitty and I picked him up from the airport on Saturday afternoon and after getting something to eat, had a very emotional reunion with Ragnar and his "PA family". At one point we were all crying (all except Ragnar). He is a sweet sweet dog, and quite beautiful too. Earle was invited to spend the night at their house (actually they insisted) and on Sunday we all met up in a park which is where the media was invited.

That turned out to be a really good plan since Ragnar was a bit overwhelmed during the "real" reunion" with not only both of his families there, but also Kitty and me...everyone fussing over him.

And to make this all extra special, Nancy Gaffney drove down from NJ on Sunday to surprise Earle. Kitty, Nancy and I finally met Earle and Ragnar, and visa-versa, and we all got to meet Ragnar's wonderful PA family. It was all good. It was the way it should all be.