Miss-Delectable
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The Times-Reporter
If the family dog wanders away, an owner’s first recourse is to call for it.
Unless of course the dog is deaf.
That was the case with Katie, a 17-year-old cocker spaniel belonging to Bonnie Simmons of New Philadelphia. Simmons said she returned to her 3rd St. NW house around 8:30 Wednesday night and Katie was in the fenced-in yard, but around 10 she found the gate was open and Katie was missing. Simmons said she went around with a flashlight but couldn’t find Katie, who also has cataracts and in the dark might not even have known she wasn’t in the yard.
Simmons went to the New Phila-delphia police station that night to report Katie missing.
“It was a great, great big deal to me, but I thought, ‘That’s not a big thing to the police,’” Simmons said.
Enter day-shift dispatcher Cindy Alesiano, a self-described “extreme animal lover” who makes it her mission to keep up on the two to three lost-pet calls the police department gets each day, most concerning dogs but a few covering birds, rabbits, ferrets and even iguanas. Alesiano said police deal with fewer traffic problems in the mornings and sometimes can devote time to finding the lost pets.
“It’s usually a happy ending, the majority of them,” Alesiano said.
With Katie’s age and poor hearing, Alesiano took extra care to make sure officers were on the lookout.
“I said, ‘Hey guys, she’s not doing well obviously at 17. Let’s just help get her home,’” Alesiano said.
Around 7:20, Officer Dan Risinger called in to report he had found a cocker spaniel – and it was ignoring him.
Simmons, who said she was “pleasantly surprised that they passed it on from one shift to the next to look for her,” was reunited with Katie before 8 Thursday morning.
“People don’t think of that aspect of police work, but this shift, we’re really compassionate about that,” Alesiano said.
If the family dog wanders away, an owner’s first recourse is to call for it.
Unless of course the dog is deaf.
That was the case with Katie, a 17-year-old cocker spaniel belonging to Bonnie Simmons of New Philadelphia. Simmons said she returned to her 3rd St. NW house around 8:30 Wednesday night and Katie was in the fenced-in yard, but around 10 she found the gate was open and Katie was missing. Simmons said she went around with a flashlight but couldn’t find Katie, who also has cataracts and in the dark might not even have known she wasn’t in the yard.
Simmons went to the New Phila-delphia police station that night to report Katie missing.
“It was a great, great big deal to me, but I thought, ‘That’s not a big thing to the police,’” Simmons said.
Enter day-shift dispatcher Cindy Alesiano, a self-described “extreme animal lover” who makes it her mission to keep up on the two to three lost-pet calls the police department gets each day, most concerning dogs but a few covering birds, rabbits, ferrets and even iguanas. Alesiano said police deal with fewer traffic problems in the mornings and sometimes can devote time to finding the lost pets.
“It’s usually a happy ending, the majority of them,” Alesiano said.
With Katie’s age and poor hearing, Alesiano took extra care to make sure officers were on the lookout.
“I said, ‘Hey guys, she’s not doing well obviously at 17. Let’s just help get her home,’” Alesiano said.
Around 7:20, Officer Dan Risinger called in to report he had found a cocker spaniel – and it was ignoring him.
Simmons, who said she was “pleasantly surprised that they passed it on from one shift to the next to look for her,” was reunited with Katie before 8 Thursday morning.
“People don’t think of that aspect of police work, but this shift, we’re really compassionate about that,” Alesiano said.