The forlorn sign on the downtown lamppost made us sad. A cute little neighbourhood Yorkie had gone missing. We could only hope that it wasn’t Pebbles.
As you can see by her photo, Pebbles, a two-and-one-half pound bundle of wagging love, is arguably the cutest of the four-legged stars who gambol in nearby College Park.
It was bad news for the Toronto Free Press gang, who walk office mascot Kiko in the park, when we found out that the Yorkie of the lamppost picture was indeed Pebbles.
The story of the missing Pebble’s return home is one of life’s little miracles. It also underscores the importance of the microchip and the honesty of the vets at Brown’s Animal Hospital. Without them, the Rodrigo Moreno family would still be heartbroken.
On Sunday, June 23 at about 10:30 p.m., freelance photographer Rodrigo Moreno went to his regular corner store at Bay and Gerrard, taking the tiny Yorkie for her evening walk. "Pebbles enjoys going to the corner store, the staff have taken a liking to her and give her some treats from the deli counter," says Moreno. " So Pebbles hangs around and waits for her treats while I gather what I need. When it’s time to go, I have to pick her up against her will or I would be waiting a long time."
On this Sunday evening things didn’t go the way they usually went. As Moreno was gathering his things, staff was attending to one customer, and Pebbles wasn’t getting her usual snacks. The customer left the store and Pebbles followed him.
Pebbles has sometimes followed other feet thinking they were the feet of her beloved owner.
Although she has the heart of a lioness, the Yorkie, you see, only stands about six inches off the ground even though she is full-grown.
The unsuspecting customer proceeded to cross Bay Street with Pebbles in tow. The Yorkie came to realize Moreno was not around the same time as the traffic lights changed and froze in her tracks. At that moment, two men jumped out of their car, scooped Pebbles up and drove off.
" I had come running of the store,"Moreno said. "But I was too late because everything had just happened.
"Luckily an eyewitness told him the dog had been scooped into a car and was driven off.
It’s a big city when you’re standing on Bay Street and an unknown car has just driven off with your dog.
Hoping against hope that Pebbles was still in the `hood, Moreno, his wife Diane and daughter Dominique postered up and down Bay Street, and filed a report to police 11:30 that same night.
The first sad morning after, they were on the phone to all the animal shelters and the humane society. Their first stroke of luck came when someone from animal control called to say there had been a second eyewitness with the presence of mind to record the licence plate of the car in which Pebbles had been whisked away.
Even with a name and telephone number of an eyewitness, police concerned with more pressing matters, initially declined to pursue the matter.
Frantic by this time, Moreno widened the net by contacting all family and friends for the purpose of pooling thoughts together.
Next came stroke of luck number two when a clerk at his local copy centre advised him to call his local councillor. Michael Robertson, in Coun. Kyle Rae’s office was not only sympathetic, he somehow persuaded the police to take a more active role.
Police returned, picked up a picture of Pebbles before going off on the hunt.
"On their return, they didn’t have any good news for us," Moreno recalled. "It turned out the person driving the car had admitted to taking Pebbles, but insisted he had dropped her off at a local park."
As there are not many parks going south on Bay from Gerrard, no one, including the police, believed this story.
In the heat of the discussion between the family and police, police somehow dropped that they had tried to retrieve the Yorkie at Yonge and Steeles.
"That same night we renewed our search by postering Yonge and Steeles," said Moreno.
Postering included the front of the house of the dognapper, with the car to which they had the licence plate in plain view in the driveway.
If only the family could have spotted Pebbles they could have called on the police for her rescue.
It was sad trudging home that night, as several days had now passed and the July 1 long weekend was coming up.
"Our gut feelings told us that if the police had visited the house which had been postered the next morning, the thieves would have passed Pebbles on to another party–hopefully another party in the same neighbourhood."
As the family was preparing their strategy for a long weekend search, a telephone call came from vets at Brown’s Animal Hospital at York Mills and Leslie saying that an unidentified woman had brought Pebbles into the hospital.
Savvy hospital staffers identified Pebbles by her microchip.
When the family tried to thank the woman, they realized that there was no proof that she even existed. They later found out that other Yorkies have gone missing in the Yonge-Steeles area.
"We could not believe how happy the people around us were and how many people could come together over our precious Pebbles," recounted a joyous Moreno.
And the dognapped Pebbles?
"She’ still a little shaky in our absence. Afterall, she was vaccinated, had her hair and nails cut, and had an appointment to be fixed by the unknown woman who had apparently been given the dog the night before."
There is boundless joy in College Park at the return of Pebbles.
If this Yorkie talked with her tongue rather than her tail, she’d say the moral of this story is to have all of our pets microchipped, and that the human microchip experts can be reached at www.petnet.ca.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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