HEARTFELT STORY FROM GLENDALE NEIGHBORHOOD.

Byline: -- Jason Kandel

When Pinocchio, the Bichon Frise, disappeared from his red pillow on a Chestnut Street porch in Glendale recently, owner Peacha Arredondo was sick to her stomach.

She spent hours making fliers, scouring the neighborhood, crying and calling out for her little white snowball of a dog that she never let out of her sight, except for that one night, when she stepped inside to make coffee.

She was worried sick.

The dog means everything to Arredondo, 70, who is terminally ill with cancer. He keeps her spirits up and makes her life complete.

But this story has a happy ending.

Police found the dog last week, after a quick investigation, and Arredondo couldn't have been happier.

``When I saw the police driving onto my street with the dog in his arm, I couldn't believe it,'' she said. ``I couldn't believe it. I was so excited.''

The case began Oct. 26, when Arredondo went inside her house to make a quick cup of coffee for her and her husband, and then returned to the porch to find her 3-month-old puppy gone.

Desperate, Arredondo, her husband, son, and a friend made fliers and handed them out to neighbors.

No luck.

Then someone told her the dog was taken by a woman who hung around the area. Arredondo went to the Glendale police station and reported the tip to officers.

The same day, police identified a woman in the area who had been contacted a week earlier by police and went to the woman's house. Once there, a woman answered, and a little white dog resembling Pinocchio also came up to the door. Police booked Danielle Ramirez, the alleged dog thief, on suspicion of theft. Arredondo holds no ill will toward the alleged dognapper.

Arredondo tells me she's getting a laptop soon and will share more of her story on valleynews.com. Feel free to tell yours as well.