Persistence pays off in pursuit of pooch.

Byline: RANDI BJORNSTAD The Register-Guard

JUNCTION CITY - Winston's home.

After three weeks of going on the lam, ending up at the pound and even getting placed in an adoptive home, the 18-month-old boxer's back with his family, lolling on the couch, smooching everything that moves and bounding around in search of his next puppy adventure.

His owner, Diana Rees, still shakes her head at the almost accidental way she got him back.

Mike Wellington, program director for the Lane County Animal Regulation Authority, said Winston's case points out many of the pitfalls inherent in the quest - too often unsuccessful - to reunite lost animals with their owners.

Last year, the agency took in 1,941 lost dogs. Of those, 586 found their way back to their owners, Wellington said. People adopted another 585, and 716 cases ended in euthanasia. Other animal welfare organizations took the remainder.

Rees' story begins when Winston disappeared from her back yard in Junction City on Aug. 28, just a few days after the family moved there from Veneta. Rees still isn't sure if the dog got out through the fence, went through an unlocked gate or whether someone took him.

She called the Junction City police, the county animal shelter and the Greenhill Humane Society.

"He had a Veneta license tag, a rabies tag and a yellow plastic microchip ID tag - I was sure that would be enough to get him back to us if someone picked him up," Rees said. "But no one called."

She'd almost given up when, at least 10 days later, her son talked to a local police officer about his bicycle, which had been stolen.

"I told the policeman that what I really wished he'd find was Winston," Rees said, "and he asked me what kind of dog he was. When I told him, he said he was sure they had taken in a dog like that. So I started calling everybody again."

At that point, Junction City police still could find no record of Winston having been there, Greenhill still hadn't seen him and Lane County Animal Control Authority workers said they couldn't release any information over the phone, Rees said.

"The person I talked to said to come in the morning and make an information request, so I did, and then they told me they didn't open until 1 p.m.," she said. "I was really frustrated by that point, and I said, 'I'm here now - I was told to come now - and I want some help,' so they let me fill out the (lost animal) form."

At that point, a staff member came out and said the shelter indeed had taken Winston in, but he'd been placed in an adoptive home with a local family.

"I said, `What? He's my dog - I reported him missing, and you said you'd never seen him - you can't give him to someone else,' ' Rees said. "He said they would contact the people who adopted him `and see what they wanted to do.' I wasn't very happy about that."

Put into contact by the agency, Rees and Winston's new owner began talking directly. The new owner wanted to be reimbursed for the adoption fee and vet checkup: $150. Rees borrowed the money to cover the costs and got Winston back.

So what went so wrong that Winston almost didn't make it home again?

To start with, Wellington said, Winston apparently didn't have an up-to-date license with his owner's current information on it. "That's the biggest impediment to people getting their dogs back," he said.

Because of the family's move, Rees hadn't yet gotten Winston a Lane County license yet. (Junction City contracts with the county for animal control activities.) But she said a call to the vet named on the rabies tag should have cleared the way to finding her. If all else failed, she said, the dog's microchip should have been his ticket home.

By the time Winston got to the county shelter, he no longer had his collar and tags, Wellington said. And for some reason, no one there checked him for a microchip, "which was a mistake on our part."

"Normally we do scan dogs for microchips, but apparently this one was missed, and I don't know why," he said. "In any case, we're not legally required to scan animals; it's more of a courtesy that we do it, and we usually do."

To compound the problem, for some reason no "lost dog card" on Winston ever appeared in the animal authority's files, Wellington said.

"We wouldn't have created one based on phone calls - we require people to come in to get information and to fill out (lost animal) reports in person," he said. "But she says she filled one out, and we don't have it; we have no record of her filling out a report."

Well after the fact, Junction City police found mention of Winston in their records, Interim Police Chief Bill DeForrest said.

"Apparently, on Aug. 28 some Junction City residents turned him in to us, and he didn't have a current license tag so we couldn't contact the owner," DeForrest said. "We placed the dog in our temporary kennel and held it a couple of days, thinking we might be contacted by the owner. Then the dog escaped from our kennel."

What happened to him then remains a mystery, but somehow, Winston got turned in to the police again Sept. 3. Believing him to be a stray, an officer took him to the county shelter, DeForrest said.

At that point, because of their contract with Junction City and the total length of time the dog had been in Junction City's custody, Winston legally became the shelter's property, Wellington said, giving the agency the right to place him for adoption.

"Our regulations say we have to keep a dog for three days, and if in that time it isn't claimed, it belongs to us for adoption or disposal," he said.

Winston spent about a week at the shelter before his new owner picked him up, "and during that time we have no record of anyone coming in to look for him," Wellington said.

In case an animal comes in without any identification, owners should stop by the shelter every day or two to check among new arrivals, he said.

"Just filling out a lost animal report isn't enough to guarantee that we'll call if one is brought in," he said. "We're very short staffed, and it just might not happen."

Besides that, trying to describe an animal over the phone just doesn't work, Wellington said.

"What one person thinks an animal looks like or weighs or what color it is may not be what another person thinks - it's not a good way to match up a lost animal with an owner."

The county also maintains an Internet site at www.lanecounty.org that includes descriptions and some pictures of animals turned in to the shelter. But Wellington cautioned that the site may not always be up to date, so people shouldn't rely on that information as proof that their pet has or hasn't been taken to the county.

"The only way to be really sure is for people to come here and check," he said.

Proper identification - collars with up-to-date licenses, identification tags and rabies tags - gives owners the best chance of being quickly reunited with lost pets, he said.

"If we find a dog or cat with good information, we often can get the animal home with a phone call, without even taking it to the shelter," Wellington said. "We even drive to people's homes if we have time, and if no one's there, we leave a door-hanger telling people we have their pet. But we can't do any of that if people don't provide the information."

COUNTY ANIMAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

Location: 3970 W. First Ave., Eugene.

Office hours: 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Saturday. Telephone hours 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Dog license fees: Neutered dogs $10 for one year, $17 for two years, $25 for three years. Other dogs $25 for one year, $45 for two years, $65 for three years.

Lost animals: Must report in person by filling out lost-animal form during office hours.

Shelter requirements: Lost animals must be kept at the shelter for three days. After that, they become the agency's property and can be adopted, transferred to another shelter or euthanized.

CAPTION(S):

NICOLE DeVITO / The Register-Guard Winston the boxer snuggles with owner Diana Rees of Junction City after spending time on the lam, time in the shelter and time with a new family.