Couple Stops Car to Help Lost Dog

Written by Jessica Painter of Albany, New York

The other night on our way home, we saw what looked like a Rottweiler wandering near the river off the highway between exits 28 & 29 of I90 West. Given that it is not the norm to see a dog down there, we decided to pull off at a small rest stop and investigate. We found a spot where we could get through the fence and go down near the water. Sure enough, it was a Rottweiler. We found his tracks all over the place down there — it looked like he’d been there for a little bit. We called the State Police, who then reached out to the dog warden. Turns out that the dog had been there since the day before. The police officer kept trying to find him but couldn’t.

The dog wouldn’t approach us. He seemed really nervous. So I suggested to my husband Ed that we sit on a log down near the water and ignore him and eventually he would become comfortable enough to approach us. Sure enough, he did. Once he came over, he started whining — almost needy. He took to Ed right away and Ed just kept talking to him and petting him and trying to comfort him. Eventually, he sat right down next to Ed. He didn’t seem to like me much; every time I looked at him, he started growling. That’s okay — I am sure he was just very scared.

He’s The Size of a Small Bear

Isn't he beautiful!

The dog seems very healthy — he is the size of a small bear (or at least it felt that way). It didn’t seem like he had been lost for very long. It’s hard to tell where he actually came from. It doesn’t look like he normally wears a collar — he wasn’t wearing one when we found him, and he didn’t even have any kind of collar marks that would imply he normally wore one.

The police officer arrived with a rope and we eventually got it around the dog’s neck and were able to coax him off the river and up to our cars. We followed the police officer into Fonda, where he was to meet the dog warden.

The dog was taken to Ayers Animal Shelter near us and on our weekly volunteer shift walking the dogs yesterday, we found out that he’s now named Maurice and is in the process of being adopted.

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