Reward or Ransom For Lost Dog?

I'll never forget that horrible day when Jetta's new owner called to tell me that she was missing. We had fostered the beautiful German shepherd for a local rescue group and grown very attached to her. On the very day of the adoption, a friend came over to visit and left the front door open just long enough for Jetta to bolt. Thankfully, someone suggested I contact Sherlock Bones, an experienced pet detective, and he helped us take immediate action. Within hours, we got Jetta back safe and sound.

Since we were a nonprofit rescue group, Sherlock Bones didn't charge us for his services. I will always be grateful for his generosity. He told us that it was important to scrape together whatever we could to offer as a specific reward on our flyers because that got everybody -- even people who didn't like dogs -- keeping an eye out for her.

Apparently, Bert Clark of Canada received similar advice. The distraught dog lover offered a $15,000 reward for the safe return of his beloved chocolate Lab, Huckleberry. Clark scoffed at a reporter's suggestion that his reward was "excessive." (I think all of us who read Bark would agree!) Soon thereafter, he got his dog back, but questions remain as to whether Huckleberry was dogknapped and the reward was actually a ransom.

Lost in all of the drama over the reward money is the fact that the dog walker left Huckleberry alone outside a cafe while she went inside for "five minutes" to grab something to eat. If a dog were left in my charge -- and I made a living at it -- you better believe that pup would never leave my sight. Now that Huckleberry is safe, I wouldn't be surprised if Clark tells the dog walker to get lost.

Julia Kamysz Lane