By Audrey Lodato, Executive Director
We have some pretty incredible and unexpected news to share with all of you. When we left off on our story of Gabriel and Serafina, we were waiting to take possession of the dogs from the vet where they were being held on stray hold and bring Serafina to Oradell for evaluation of her injuries.
We received the dogs yesterday afternoon, and as you can imagine, our focus was getting Serafina directly to Oradell to be evaluated.  At Oradell, Serafina saw the neurologist and the news was mixed. Serafina would need her bladder expressed three times a day for life. She would not walk again and would need a cart.  But, she would not need immediate surgery and was not in any pain. After some cage rest she would be fitted for her cart and on her way to a better life.
Gabriel spent last night in my office on a comfy bed, and although he had walks, cuddles and a good meal, we didn’t do much with him aside from that. This morning, our whole staff was wondering if would be possible to co-house the two dogs. Serafina needs 6 weeks of crate rest but they were obviously broken hearted without each other. They were in the same building but it probably felt like a world away.
We decided we would try and bring Gabriel into Janet’s office, where Serafina was being held, and see how she reacted. While we were in there, I suggested we double check for a microchip. The intake paperwork did say that they had been scanned at the vet, but it’s always a good plan to double check. When we heard the beep that the scanner makes when a chip is detected, Janet and I just looked at each other. After all these dogs had been through, they had owners; People who probably cared about them and were looking for them.
We raced into my office and called the microchip company, and then we got the information for the owners. When Alexis, their owner, answered the phone, she was stunned. The dogs had been gone a more than a week, and they had been lost in Connecticut. They had gotten away in a simple accident – while visiting a friend’s house with the dogs, they had gotten out of a gate.  The dogs must have run together for a long way through the woods until they reached the road where Serafina was hit. They were picked up by animal control the same day they were lost.
 
The dog we were calling Gabriel’s real name is Bumble. Serafina’s real name is Iris. They live in Connecticut and the family has six children. All of them were missing their dogs. The family had been frantic looking for them, but they had been looking in the wrong place. No one would suspect the dogs would have traveled so far in such a short amount of time.
I carefully explained to Alexis that Iris had been hit by a car and was paralyzed, and I told them the story of how they had ended up here. Alexis took in all of the information, and of course she was upset that Iris was hurt, but she was also happy that both dogs were alive.
Alexis and her family drove the 2 and a half hours from their home in Connecticut to Pets Alive today, where we reunited them with Iris and Bumble.  Janet, Sue, Tracey and I spent several hours with them going over all of the daily care Iris will need. We also touched base with their veterinarian and sent all of the records over. The donations that we have collected will go directly to the costs associated with Iris’s care. The majority will go to pay our bill at Oradell, and the rest we will put towards a cart for Iris.
Pets Alive feels very privileged to have assisted these dogs.  Had we not stepped in, these dogs would never have gone home. Iris would most likely have been euthanized, and Bumble adopted to another family.  Sometimes, angels really do watch over animals. Today we got to be angels ourselves, and we have YOU to thank for it!