Harley with 8 years of experience
Betsy Dehaan lived in the Fort Meyers Florida area and she had a couple dogs that she exercised every day. They mostly ran around their big back yard and sniffed at the woods behind the house. One day Betsy needed to go inside while the dogs were outside for their break and when she came back out and called the dogs Bowser wandered back to the yard from the trees, but Harley did not. Betsy called and walked through the brush behind the house, but could not find or retrieve her young pit bull. She made posters and asked all the neighbors if they had seen Harley. She put lost dog notices on social media for weeks, but nothing ever came of the effort. Life went on and the family moved from Florida to Missouri, but they did not have any more dogs. Betsy thought she could not suffer another loss of her furry friend like Harley again. That was 2014.
Eight years and five months later Betsy got a phone call asking her about Harley who she assumed was dead. While Betsy and her family had been making a new life in Missouri, Harley had been living with someone or someones and they abandoned the dog near the San Carlos Park near Fort Meyers. One of Betsy’s old neighbors, Angie Bray was walking with a friend at the park and saw a skinny lifeless dog wandering in the paths. Angie thought it looked like the old Harley that Betsy had been crying over before she left town. Bray brought the dog some food and got a leash on him and took him to the Cypress Lake Animal Hospital and they called the Lee County Domestic Animal Services. Betsy had implanted an ID chip in Harley and the shelter was able to retrieve her identity and track her to her new house. Betsy got the message on Saturday. “And I’m like, is this a scam? Because we were talking about Harley that morning. You know, what an amazing dog and where could hardly be is he’s still out there. And I got the text. And you know, you think Google always picks up on your advertisement?? Haha, I’m like, this is a scam. This is not real,” said Betsy. Betsy was ecstatic when she realized that Harley was still alive and waiting for her in Fort Meyers. “I just want to tell him I’m so sorry that I didn’t find him.” Angie said, “The dog was so sweet, super well behaved. Seemed as happy as can be. Aside from being really skinny. He had some really overgrown nails.” Betsy called the dog shelter and they sent a picture. Harley was a lot thinner and had not been cared for, but it was really her best friend. So Betsy told them please take care of Harley until I get there. Then she drove 1100 miles to Fort Meyers to pick Harley up. You can watch the reunion in the video below.
The reunion:
Lost Dog emotions
Jim: Why are you crying?
Joe: My dog’s lost.
Jim: Maybe he’ll just come home.
Joe: No he won’t, he’s lost.
Jim: Well, I’ll help you put Lost Dog posters up if you want.
Joe: Naw, it wouldn’t do any good.
Jim: Why not?
Joe: My dog can’t read!
I spend three minutes every day choosing a TV channel to leave on for my dog.
Then I go to work, and people take me seriously as an adult.
I dressed my dog up as a cat for Halloween.
Now he won’t come when I call him.
I used to be in a band, we were called “Lost dog.”
You’ve probably seen our posters…
January 4th Birthdays
1995 – Maddie Hasson, 1999 – Coco Jones, 2001 – Addie Miller, 1997 – Emma Mackey
1999 – Collin Sexton, 1785 – Jakob Grimm, 1930 – Don Shula, 1643 – Sir Isaac Newton