Butchie
Early March 2010, Laurie, a volunteer trapping feral cats for the New Rochelle Humane Society’s Trap, Neuter and Return Program came across an elderly one-eyed Chihuahua. Laurie asked around the neighborhood trying to locate the dog’s owner and was told that the dog had been seen wandering about for several days and no one knew where he lived. It was very apparent that he needed help, so when Laurie showed up for her feral cat’s spay appointment, she brought along the little lost dog as well. We named him “Jimmie Cricket” and quickly fell in love with this scruffy senior.
The New Rochelle Humane Society receives dozens of calls each week from people who’s pets have gone missing and maintain the lost reports in a book. There was something about this dog that spurred a faint memory for one of our staff members (and former volunteer), Ashley. She searched and searched through hundreds of reports, and with perseverance, eventually found an old report dated September 15th, 2009 for a one-eyed, 15-year old Chihuahua named Butchie. One phone call later, Ashley had a tearful owner on the phone in complete disbelief.
Butchie’s owner, Pat was reunited with her little dog the very next day. We spoke with Pat recently and she told us how happy Butchie is to be back home and how much he is enjoying being reunited with his girlfriend, a little Shih Tzu who also missed him very much.
How did this little dog survive through the winter? After speaking with Butchie’s owner, we discovered that Butchie had wandered out of his backyard in early September. She had placed posters around her neighborhood and filed lost reports with several animal shelters throughout Westchester County. Butchie was likely found by someone just a few blocks away from his home who took him in, but he somehow found himself back on the streets again in March. The person who found Butchie in September has yet to be identified, so perhaps there is still another chapter to be written about this little dog!
