AIRPORT SHUTTLE ROLLS TO FANTASY FROM ISLAND.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

Lucky woman, Julie Costa. If she had missed that airport shuttle or had decided to wave down a taxicab instead, she never would have lived out the fantasy reunion she recently enjoyed.

But fate was smiling on this retired Los Angeles Unified School District teacher, born 63 years ago on Aruba, a tiny island in the Caribbean.

``Today, it's a tourist destination, but back then it was one of the biggest oil refineries in the world, with only about 30,000 people living on the whole island,'' Costa said this week from her Woodland Hills home.

She was 13 when her father and mother closed their general store on the island and moved back to the United States. Like most kids moving away from friends, she exchanged tearful goodbyes, pictures and promises to stay in touch.

But Julie Costa and her two closest childhood friends on Aruba were no different from most childhood friends who lose contact. The years and the miles are just too tough on childhood promises.

Fast forward 50 years. Julie and a friend are on their way to the plane for a flight home from a vacation at Epcot Center in Florida. There are only two other people on the airport shuttle: a man and his wife.

``They were speaking in a language I thought was Dutch, but turned out to be Afrikaans,'' Julie said. ``We all began talking in English, and he said he was born in South Africa, and his wife was born in the Dutch West Indies.

``My eyes went up, and I asked her where in the Dutch West Indies,'' Julie said. ``She said I wouldn't know it, a tiny island called Aruba.''

Julie took a harder look at the woman and figured her for about her own age. ``Was your father a minister?'' Julie asked.

Shocked, the woman said yes. Julie took Geralda Schoeman's hand, said they were childhood friends and told her she still has the school picture Geralda gave her more than 50 years ago so Julie would never forget her.

After hugs and tears, Geralda told Julie she was corresponding with a mutual childhood friend from Aruba, Germaine Nouel, now living in Holland.

Last month, Julie flew to Amsterdam for a reunion with Germaine. Then the two took a tour of South Africa that ended with a long stay at Geralda's home in Cape Town.

Three childhood friends from the tiny island of Aruba finding each other 50 years later, thanks to a chance meeting on an airport shuttle.

This is another lost-and-found story, but so far it doesn't have a happy ending.

Somewhere out in the Valley today, members of a young family have a new dog they call Lucky.

A couple of weeks ago, though, the dog's name was Zoey, and he belonged to the Shaffer family living on Matilija Avenue, not far from the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square.

Somehow, Harold Shaffer says, his son's dog got out of the backyard, and the family is desperate to get him back.

``I searched the neighborhood, put up posters, checked the animal shelters daily, put ads in the papers, hired a company to distribute 5,000 fliers door to door, and even hired a private detective to help find Zoey,'' he said.

But all Shaffer really had to do to find the dog was walk down his street about half a block. Some neighbors found the dog, took him in and placed an ad in the Daily News in the ``Found'' column.

By the time a friend noticed the ad and called Shaffer, though, the dog was gone from the neighbors' house.

``They had taken him down to the Pet Adoption Fund in Canoga Park, but before entering the building, they ran into a couple outside who said they wanted the dog,'' Shaffer said. ``So, they gave Zoey to them.''

All Shaffer knows about the couple is that they live in the West Hills area and the woman's name is Karen. Her daughter is named Bailey.

``The people who gave my dog away told me that the new owners called them two days later to thank them again and say they named the dog Lucky.''

The Shaffer family is hoping those who now have their dog will have a heart and return him. Shaffer's number is [phone].