Friday, July 31, 2009

Home Laika Home

For all those that are curious, here is how it all happened:

The Facebook entries led to local blog posts in The NY Times, the Brooklyn Paper, The Clinton Hill Blog and several others. Channel 12 News - the local cable channel for Brooklyn - found the "Dognapping" story online and called me for an interview. -http://tinyurl.com/laikaontv

The first segment aired at 5.30pm. By 6.15pm I had a call from the station, with the number of Latisha, who said she had seen Laika in her neighborhood. Latisha described the couple she had seen and I nearly fell off my chair. She said the woman was white, had red hair, wore glasses, and always wore long white clothes. 'EVERYONE in my neighborhood knows them. He is in the wheelchair, and he got dark wavy hair. I saw the dog with them this morning"

Her description exactly matched the security camera footage. We got in the car and went off to East New York.

Twenty minutes later we are standing on Atlantic Avenue and Eastern Parkway in the dark. I spoke to a girl with a small dog coming out of the deli. "We think the dog was taken by a man in a wheelchair...""Oh yes!" she says, "they live right there!". She pointed across the street to a run-down tenement under the bridge on Atlantic.

I drove through one red light on the way over, I was so anxious to get there. By the time we have found the apartment door, we have accumulated a crowd of seven people. They are all around us, looking at the poster. "I seen that dog!". But, (frustration!) the apartment is empty... We are just about to go downstairs to consider our next move, when David suggests that I call Laika's name through the door.

I bend down. "Laika! Laika!". From behind the door I suddenly hear whimpering, banging, scratching and snuffling. Incredibly, it really was Laika.

So, thank you for all your good wishes. It was a pretty amazing experience. We are very glad that Laika is home safe, and would particularly like to thank:

Aylam Orian - for his tireless efforts and sense of justice.
Donna Lentol- for her generosity and hard work
Liz Houley - for driving around with her daughters to put up posters and encouraging emails.
Roberta Glick - for her constant encouragement, calls and emails.
Terry Radigan - for threatening our neighbors in her crash helmet
Mary Nguyen - for the TV spot that reunited us
Robin Lester - for support and quick posting
Lee Solomon - for excellent advice and practical thoughts

9 comments:

  1. yippeee!!! I am so very, very happy for all of you.

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  2. OMG, amazing!!! Tell us what happened to actually get her back! Will the dog nappers be facing any charges?

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  3. I'm so happy you found her! I cried when I read you called out her name and she whimpered behind the door!

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  4. Lesterhead and Meowzas, am happy to send you the full account but by email, as some of it should not be public :) my email is nataliebarratt@me.com. Can you write to me and I will send it back.

    OR it is available on Facebook if you friend me under Natalie Clark Barratt. Thanks!

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  5. i'm so glad to hear that she's home and well.

    lena

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  6. sounds like someone picked a lock or broke down a door... haha either way very happy to hear your dog is back safe and sound!

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  7. What an amazing story of triumph! I can't imagine if this happened to me. Your dog is lucky to have such loyal owners.

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  8. So how did u get the dog back? How did you get it out of the apartment? what did the man and woman say to justify the taking of your dog?

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