Operation Free Romo
So, here's the 20 minute story for the 5 minute adventure and 2 day long or 14 day long saga...
So, 14 days ago, Nana was outside cleaning out the trashcans and Romo and Lola were outside with her. (We were in New Jersey and Diego was at Dianne's house) Nana turned back from cleaning the trashcans and Lola was still there but Romo wasn't anywhere around.
Nana walked the neighborhood and drove the streets searching for Romo for 2 hours. Then, she called us in New Jersey. We then called out the troops. Della and Kristi (our neighbors), Gran and probably several others combed the streets, park and neighborhood. Throughout the week several people combed the neighborhood more and Mickey put up signs for us.
We arrived back in DFW Mon night/ Tues Morning and all I wanted to do is find Romo. We searched Fort Worth Animal Shelter, Nini and Patpat searched the Humane Society, we called Saginaw, Haslet, NRH shelters and filled out their missing dog forms. We posted his information on Fidofinder.com. I faxed our poster to all the vets in the area. I posted a big sign on the busy corners (which then was stolen) To say the least we did a lot of searching.
We had a break in the case :) on Monday. I received a call from a 12 year old girl Monday afternoon that was VERY weird. She was talking to me and to someone on her end of the line. They were trying to talk her out of telling me stuff. The first time I talked to her she asked me information that was on the fliers. (I won't list them out to save your mind and for boredom reasons) She then said that she had to wait until her parents came home to call me back. I said I understood.
She then called back and asked many of the same questions again and then said she knew where Romo was. Her neighbor has him. She said that they knew that we were looking for him, but they had taken off his tags. He was a nice dog, because she had played with him, and they were feeding him and taking care of him. She said she didn't want to give me her or their address until her parents got home, but she would just as soon as they did. And of course she was calling from a cell phone, so I couldn't look up their address. The conversations with her were quite strange. I asked her if she lived in our neighborhood and she said yes. She kept saying they were going to be really mad at her for telling me that they had our dog and that they knew that she was telling me, but it was the right thing to do.
I called last night around 9:00 and left a message asking her to have her parents call me back.
I didn't hear anything else until 12:00 today. Then she called and told me she was with her Grandmother and she was telling her she was doing the right thing. While her step-mother got home last night and told her that she needed to stay out of it, because she was just going to cause drama with their neighbors. (So thank GOD for Grandma) She asked me if I would promise not to tell her neighbors that she had told me. (although she had said yesterday several times that they knew she was telling me) I told her even before she asked that I hadn't planned on telling them she told me. She then gave me the address...
It took all I had not to leave the doctor's office I was working at and run home.
On top of all this the A/C on the 4 year old Expedition went out and Robert has my Altima in Austin. So, I went by the A/C shop and my mom picked me up and we headed that direction. While driving home our informant called again and asked again that we not tell them that she told us. Then I talked to her grandmother. Her grandmother informed me that the girl had seen the kids take down the missing dog signs and had removed Romo's dog tag and were not planning on giving us Romo back, she also seemed to think that the parents of the kids didn't seem to care what they were doing.
So, Mom and I came home to grab a missing dog sign. Our plan was to show them the sign and then ask them if they've seen the dog, if they said no, then we would tell them that we got a call or something....
So, we knocked on their door, rang the doorbell and nothing... (Also, no dog barks, which really worried me)
The neighbor's garage was open to I went over there to ask them if they've seen the dog and Mom went toward the back fence. Mom called out for Romo and she heard him bark, and saw him poke his head out of a hole in the bottom of their fence. I came around the corner and she said he was there. We called for him again and 3 other dogs and Romo kept poking their heads out of the hole. Then, Someone came through the hole... ROMO!! At first I couldn't tell if it was him. He was fatter then I had remembered. The big black dot on his belly was there, he was neutered, dew claws gone, pointy ears... I picked him up and took him to the car.
We got home and let out Diego and Lola, they smelt him over (didn't react like a new dog was in the house, like the normally would) then started trying to play. Since Romo had been outside in 100 degree weather he was super tired and just wanted to drink water and stand around. He wasn't really acting like Romo, so I still looked up his pictures and made she that all his markings matched. I didn't want to have stolen someone else's dog :) All the marking matched!!
Oh BTW the house he was at was about 7-8 houses away from us. CRAZINESS, he could have lived for who knows how long about a block away from us!!
Anyway, I had been consulting our neighborhood police officer (Officer Sneed) today. When I called this morning he said that he would be happy to accompany me to their house, but suggested that I go to their house and ask if they had him 1st and then if they said no and I still thought they had him then he would be happy to come along a 2nd time. Then I called later on once I had information about them removing the signs and it sounding like they didn't want to give him back and he said he wouldn't be able to come with me tonight, but he would tomorrow night. I told him I would call him tomorrow if I still needed help. Then, after the rescue, I called him again for advice on if it was ok to keep my dog, since he had left their yard and was now in my possession again or should I go over there later on and let them know, I didn't think that was a good idea, but I didn't want them to come back and say I stole their dog. He spent about 2 minutes says, Ummmm, Man, Shoot, Hummmmm. LOL I think I stumped him. He said that he would discuss the situation with his commanding officer and that I should keep Romo. If they showed up at our house and there was a situation we should call the non-emergency # or if there was a bigger problem to call 911.
So, we took Romo to pick up Aiden from daycare. Aiden saw Romo and ran up to him and gave him a hug. Gran said, "We found Romo!" and he said, "Why?".... Crazy kid (That's his favorite word right now, why? why? why?)
So, Romo went to soccer practice with us, then to Chickfila for dinner, then to the A/C shop to pick up the car and then back home. It was a crazy day (A great birthday for Gran) and ended with a successful ending to Operation Free Romo.
He got a bath with Aiden tonight and is now cuddled up snugly in Aiden's bed with him. He's not 100%, probably because he was outside in the heat, I'm sure he'll be back to normal soon. I'm going to take Aiden to meet the young lady who called me tomorrow night and then give her a gift. Now maybe I can sleep at night knowing all my kiddos are safe in our house.
Friday's plan...Microchip Romo and new tags tomorrow. Until then he has supervised visits outside in the back yard and the back gate is locked, no visits - supervised or unsupervised - in the front yard. Well, that might be the case for the next couple of months, until I get over the fear of someone taking one of our kiddos.
I must say that they are very lucky that they didn't take Diego (my 1st baby) because I would still be sitting on their door step waiting for them to come home to give them a piece of my mind. I'm temped to remove the other dogs from their back yard, but I won't.
Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, comments, advice, etc. Special thanks to all those who combed the neighborhood searching for him and putting up signs and trying to keep me sane through all of this. I'm usually the level headed person who people come to for advice/counseling, but I had to have a counseling session of my own with Robert last week. He's so sweet to put up with my craziness. It has definitely been an interesting roller coaster and I'm glad that we are getting off of it.
(FYI: $39 for Rabies vaccine, microchip and license through the city of Fort Worth and they spay/neuter pit bulls for free but only pit bulls, just thought I would pass along that info)
So, 14 days ago, Nana was outside cleaning out the trashcans and Romo and Lola were outside with her. (We were in New Jersey and Diego was at Dianne's house) Nana turned back from cleaning the trashcans and Lola was still there but Romo wasn't anywhere around.
Nana walked the neighborhood and drove the streets searching for Romo for 2 hours. Then, she called us in New Jersey. We then called out the troops. Della and Kristi (our neighbors), Gran and probably several others combed the streets, park and neighborhood. Throughout the week several people combed the neighborhood more and Mickey put up signs for us.
We arrived back in DFW Mon night/ Tues Morning and all I wanted to do is find Romo. We searched Fort Worth Animal Shelter, Nini and Patpat searched the Humane Society, we called Saginaw, Haslet, NRH shelters and filled out their missing dog forms. We posted his information on Fidofinder.com. I faxed our poster to all the vets in the area. I posted a big sign on the busy corners (which then was stolen) To say the least we did a lot of searching.
We had a break in the case :) on Monday. I received a call from a 12 year old girl Monday afternoon that was VERY weird. She was talking to me and to someone on her end of the line. They were trying to talk her out of telling me stuff. The first time I talked to her she asked me information that was on the fliers. (I won't list them out to save your mind and for boredom reasons) She then said that she had to wait until her parents came home to call me back. I said I understood.
She then called back and asked many of the same questions again and then said she knew where Romo was. Her neighbor has him. She said that they knew that we were looking for him, but they had taken off his tags. He was a nice dog, because she had played with him, and they were feeding him and taking care of him. She said she didn't want to give me her or their address until her parents got home, but she would just as soon as they did. And of course she was calling from a cell phone, so I couldn't look up their address. The conversations with her were quite strange. I asked her if she lived in our neighborhood and she said yes. She kept saying they were going to be really mad at her for telling me that they had our dog and that they knew that she was telling me, but it was the right thing to do.
I called last night around 9:00 and left a message asking her to have her parents call me back.
I didn't hear anything else until 12:00 today. Then she called and told me she was with her Grandmother and she was telling her she was doing the right thing. While her step-mother got home last night and told her that she needed to stay out of it, because she was just going to cause drama with their neighbors. (So thank GOD for Grandma) She asked me if I would promise not to tell her neighbors that she had told me. (although she had said yesterday several times that they knew she was telling me) I told her even before she asked that I hadn't planned on telling them she told me. She then gave me the address...
It took all I had not to leave the doctor's office I was working at and run home.
On top of all this the A/C on the 4 year old Expedition went out and Robert has my Altima in Austin. So, I went by the A/C shop and my mom picked me up and we headed that direction. While driving home our informant called again and asked again that we not tell them that she told us. Then I talked to her grandmother. Her grandmother informed me that the girl had seen the kids take down the missing dog signs and had removed Romo's dog tag and were not planning on giving us Romo back, she also seemed to think that the parents of the kids didn't seem to care what they were doing.
So, Mom and I came home to grab a missing dog sign. Our plan was to show them the sign and then ask them if they've seen the dog, if they said no, then we would tell them that we got a call or something....
So, we knocked on their door, rang the doorbell and nothing... (Also, no dog barks, which really worried me)
The neighbor's garage was open to I went over there to ask them if they've seen the dog and Mom went toward the back fence. Mom called out for Romo and she heard him bark, and saw him poke his head out of a hole in the bottom of their fence. I came around the corner and she said he was there. We called for him again and 3 other dogs and Romo kept poking their heads out of the hole. Then, Someone came through the hole... ROMO!! At first I couldn't tell if it was him. He was fatter then I had remembered. The big black dot on his belly was there, he was neutered, dew claws gone, pointy ears... I picked him up and took him to the car.
We got home and let out Diego and Lola, they smelt him over (didn't react like a new dog was in the house, like the normally would) then started trying to play. Since Romo had been outside in 100 degree weather he was super tired and just wanted to drink water and stand around. He wasn't really acting like Romo, so I still looked up his pictures and made she that all his markings matched. I didn't want to have stolen someone else's dog :) All the marking matched!!
Oh BTW the house he was at was about 7-8 houses away from us. CRAZINESS, he could have lived for who knows how long about a block away from us!!
Anyway, I had been consulting our neighborhood police officer (Officer Sneed) today. When I called this morning he said that he would be happy to accompany me to their house, but suggested that I go to their house and ask if they had him 1st and then if they said no and I still thought they had him then he would be happy to come along a 2nd time. Then I called later on once I had information about them removing the signs and it sounding like they didn't want to give him back and he said he wouldn't be able to come with me tonight, but he would tomorrow night. I told him I would call him tomorrow if I still needed help. Then, after the rescue, I called him again for advice on if it was ok to keep my dog, since he had left their yard and was now in my possession again or should I go over there later on and let them know, I didn't think that was a good idea, but I didn't want them to come back and say I stole their dog. He spent about 2 minutes says, Ummmm, Man, Shoot, Hummmmm. LOL I think I stumped him. He said that he would discuss the situation with his commanding officer and that I should keep Romo. If they showed up at our house and there was a situation we should call the non-emergency # or if there was a bigger problem to call 911.
So, we took Romo to pick up Aiden from daycare. Aiden saw Romo and ran up to him and gave him a hug. Gran said, "We found Romo!" and he said, "Why?".... Crazy kid (That's his favorite word right now, why? why? why?)
So, Romo went to soccer practice with us, then to Chickfila for dinner, then to the A/C shop to pick up the car and then back home. It was a crazy day (A great birthday for Gran) and ended with a successful ending to Operation Free Romo.
He got a bath with Aiden tonight and is now cuddled up snugly in Aiden's bed with him. He's not 100%, probably because he was outside in the heat, I'm sure he'll be back to normal soon. I'm going to take Aiden to meet the young lady who called me tomorrow night and then give her a gift. Now maybe I can sleep at night knowing all my kiddos are safe in our house.
Friday's plan...Microchip Romo and new tags tomorrow. Until then he has supervised visits outside in the back yard and the back gate is locked, no visits - supervised or unsupervised - in the front yard. Well, that might be the case for the next couple of months, until I get over the fear of someone taking one of our kiddos.
I must say that they are very lucky that they didn't take Diego (my 1st baby) because I would still be sitting on their door step waiting for them to come home to give them a piece of my mind. I'm temped to remove the other dogs from their back yard, but I won't.
Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, comments, advice, etc. Special thanks to all those who combed the neighborhood searching for him and putting up signs and trying to keep me sane through all of this. I'm usually the level headed person who people come to for advice/counseling, but I had to have a counseling session of my own with Robert last week. He's so sweet to put up with my craziness. It has definitely been an interesting roller coaster and I'm glad that we are getting off of it.
(FYI: $39 for Rabies vaccine, microchip and license through the city of Fort Worth and they spay/neuter pit bulls for free but only pit bulls, just thought I would pass along that info)
Comments