Posted on 09/24/2005 11:02:05 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
A chance meeting at an Independence animal shelter has left a relocated Hurricane Katrina victim without his longtime pet.
John Wyrick, who moved to the area from Mississippi following the hurricane, had taken his German Shepherd to the shelter approximately two weeks ago after learning he would not be able to keep it at a temporary residence.
He released his pet of 14 years to a stranger while searching for a place to live. After finding a home, he has learned he can't have his dog back.
Wyrick met with an unidentified woman visiting the shelter, said Amy Wells, shelter manager.
"He wanted the animal shelter to take the dog. They started talking," Wells said. "He decided he wanted to give the dog to her. I told them you cannot do the transfer on our property."
After that point the story becomes unclear. What is known is Independence resident Lynn Nevills eventually ended up with the dog. Wyrick could not be reached Friday.
City of Independence spokesperson Irene Baltrusaitis said the shelter believes Nevills is not the woman who spoke with Wyrick because she differs in body type and description. Nevertheless, at some point Nevills took possession of the dog. After Wyrick found a permanent residence, he approached Nevills about recovering his pet of 14 years.
Nevills reportedly has refused to return the dog. Nevills was at her home Friday afternoon but would not respond to requests for comment. The sound of a dog could be heard outside of her north Independence home.
Residents throughout the area have offered Nevills money or puppies as an incentive to return the dog to Wyrick after seeing the story on television.
Nevills is not a shelter volunteer. She has volunteered with the Independence Police Department's K-9 unit, according to Baltrusaitis.
Nevills and her husband have done grass and landscape work, as well as raised money for the department's K-9 program.
"We don't have volunteers who take care of dogs," Baltrusaitis said." The volunteers take care of other things."
To reach Andre Riley, e-mail andre.riley@examiner.net or call (816) 350-6362.
Every thread must have it's own devil's advocate....:)
What a sad story this is. God Bless you, Salamander.
Not as much as #97.
I'm always amazed at the utter meanness of people.
ESPECIALLY when it involves a living, feeling entity. Are those people thinking about the 14 yr old dog? Nope.
Bored people? Wonder how loud the screaming of "unfair" would be if it was them.
I hate to admit it...but I absolutely adore the big loon....LOL!
In spite of her fear of men, she actually stands against me in the yard, snarling and barking when she sees the neighbor out doing yard work.
With all her fear, she still wants to "protect mom".
As hard as some days are, it's all worth it when she starts that crazy "chuckling" noise as she grins and rubs herself all over me like a giant cat....;)
I'm becoming numb to the meanness of other posters... a dear FReeper friend put it all in perspective for me and explained why he thinks they are the way they are.
Someone posed the question on another Katrina/pet thread last week "Why do those who have no interest in this issue feel compelled to butt in and harrass those who do?
The answer given was "Because it -is- a -compulsion-".
Now I just "consider the source", ignore them and go on.
[but I must say, it's very disappointing to find FReepers who think like that]
And bless you and your very lucky Yorkie....:)
Was the "city guy" charged with anything? Horsewhipping would have been my choice for him. High noon. Town sqaure.
As for this lady, we know one thing about her: she's stupid; when your story makes national news, it's time to cut your losses and return the dog. If she doesn't, she's going to be known forever as "the lady who took the hurricane victim's dog." And as somebody else on the thread said, God help her poor kids.
It was "sad" but now it's just a bumpy road on the way to joy....:)
Some threads draw a whole slew of them, like a magnet.
It's helpful though, as you can mentally make a list of the unappeasables and malcontents and avoid them in the future.
Geeze, bvw, you're pretty heartless, too. You've heard of mitigating circumstances, right?
Sometimes it is appropriate to look beyond the simple, surface facts.
Yeah most people don't think about that kind of stuff. My dog has feelings. He gets upset when I am angry. He starts to shake and gets scared when a storm is coming. When my cat died he knew something was wrong. I took him some time to get back to his normal self. He misses people when they are gone. My cat would never come out if we had guests unless he knew them. He would hide for hours. And the funny thing is that the people he knew could come back years latter and he knew them and would come out to see them. This isn't only about the people involved. Pets have feelings too.
If more $$ is the deciding factor for Ms. Nevill, then I really despise her.
She would be heartless AND greedy.
My sister had a dog that didn't like men either. She thought some guy beat the dog.
Contentious, fractious malcontents.
[world's full of 'em]....:))
"Wonder how loud the screaming of "unfair" would be if it was them."
Armchair Pharisees.
[world's fulla them too]...LOL!
Absolutely! When I divorced, my ex-husband took two of our dogs and I took one a the cat; when one of the dogs he had ran away, it left the "mother" dog alone all day; he was going to give her to a nice couple out in the country; she was 15 years old.
My vet said she needed to be with people she knew and loved at that age, that the change might kill her; so I took her. I couldn't have lived with myself if she had been lonely in her old age! (And she lived five more years!)
I roll my eyes when people post on a thread that they don't understand why it was posted or why anyone is reading it.
Some people see them as just possesions and never as living things. Those are the ones that you never want near animals.
You just HAD to point that out! LOL!!
A lot of them are posting today. ;)
No, he never was because only old Jesse was a witness and in a court of law, he couldn't have proved a negative by saying he *didn't* give them over willingly and he did sign the paper.
His ability to read was limited by educational shortfall and very bad eyesight.
Who knows what the paper actually said.
He wouldn't have known how to "do anything about it", anyway.
He was very old, very under-educated and without anyone who had the savvy to help him.
We found out about it quite a while after the fact, just shortly before he died.
What goes around -always- comes around, one way or another.
According to the reporters to whom she won't speak, she has the dog locked up behind a high fence.
[maybe she's afraid it will take off to find its real family]
Whatever the case, the satisfaction she gets from having the dog is nothing less than a Pyhrric victory.
She must be miserable, locked away behind her fence.
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