Dog finds way back to Wayland

 

This is a shaggy dog story. Like most shaggy dog stories, it’s circuitous. But unlike most shaggy dog stories, it has an ending.
The shaggy dog in question is a 65-pound black mixed breed named Java belonging to the Gylys-Iannace family, who live in the Claypit Hill area of Wayland.
After his wife Rita Gylys went to work early on the mild morning of Monday, March 26, Carmine Iannace put Java outdoors, something the family had done many times in the past.
"She’s not a roamer," said Gylys. "And she was wearing two collars. One was an ID collar; the other was for the invisible fence that surrounds our property and that we had checked out just the day before."
By the time Gylys, an attorney, and her husband, an IT specialist, returned home that evening, Java was missing.
Meantime, at around 11 in the morning of Monday the 26th, the Crooker family – Bill and Jill – who live in a remote area of Northfield more than 80 miles from Wayland – spotted a shaggy black dog in their yard and coaxed her onto the porch and finally into the house. By this time, the dog was missing both collars, so there was no way the Crookers could know where she had come from.
Back in Wayland, Gylys and Iannace, along with their 8-year-old daughter Emilija, went into action. They searched the woods and the roadways, alerted neighbors and friends, postal carriers, pizza delivery people, school bus drivers, dog officers, and vets all over the area, and put "Lost Dog" flyers up in every public spot they could think of. The week wore on.
Until Saturday evening, when Bill Crooker’s sister Judy of Wayland went to Northfield to have dinner with her brother and family. There she saw a shaggy black dog that had come out of nowhere. Back in Wayland the next day, she saw one of the Gylys-Iannace’s posters at CVS and called them immediately.
After the Crookers verified that Gylys and Iannace were indeed the owners of the dog they had found – an arduous process involving a close examination of the animal’s unusual teeth – the Wayland couple drove up to Northfield and reclaimed Java.
"We’re so incredibly grateful to everyone who helped," Iannace said. "People really do reach out; it’s very touching. And the networking is great. I told the guys down at the fire station about Java and they put it out over dispatch."
The two important lessons the Gylys-Iannace family have learned – never leave your dog unattended, even in Wayland, and put a microchip in your dog, as collars are no guarantee.
Microchip clinics will be held at Especially for Pets in Acton (444 Great Road, 978-264-4444) from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, and at Especially for Pets in Sudbury (81 Union Ave., 978-443-7682) at the same time on the following Saturday. Pre-registration at "www.petadvocate.org/preregistration.html" is recommended. For more information visit "www.especiallyforpets.com/petadvocate_407.htm"
There will be another microchip (and rabies) clinic at the Framingham Animal Control, 50 Western Ave., on Sunday, May 6 from 9 a.m. to noon. Call 508-620-4870 for information. And yet another, just for microchips, at the Save-A-Dog Walk in the Park at Pierce House in Lincoln on Sunday, June 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For information on this one visit "www.saveadog.org/paws2007.asp"
Fees at the Especially for Pets and Save-A-Dog clinics are $25 and include the chip, implantation and registration with a 24-hour database.

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