I want to thank the fine staff of The Citizen as well as the residents of Peachtree City for recently assisting with a lost dog in the community.
My wife Pam and I were pet-sitting for a friend when Alex, a whippet, jumped over our fence and disappeared. Alex had been a show dog most of his life and lived in a very sheltered environment. To say he was skittish would be an understatement.
After a few days, he became feral and would not come to anyone, even its owner. The fact that whippets can dash at speeds up to 40 mph made our chances of catching him nearly impossible.
We posted fliers all over our neighborhood and The Citizen ran a front page story on Alex the weekend after he was lost. Slowly, neighbors began calling us with Alex sightings which told us, if nothing else, he was still alive. We followed up each call with hours of searching, mostly resulting in frustration.
Alex spent about 10 days rummaging around the Robinson Road and McIntosh Trail area, then moved over to Fisher Luck and Lake Peachtree neighborhoods for a couple of weeks.
We believe the fireworks on the 3rd scared him as the next sightings were in Kedron. Finally we received calls from people living in the Interlochen area just last week that Alex was hanging around there.
Reports were that he didn’t look well, was limping, and very skinny. Our fears of him being hit by a car continued, as we knew Alex would continue to forage further and further for food if necessary.
Finally, my son and I spotted him at an abandoned house in Greer’s Mountain, which backs up to Interlochen, and coerced him towards a trap I had set in the woods.
About 11 p.m. on July 13th, efforts finally paid off and Alex was trapped … wet, cold, and hungry. Other than being underweight, having a few sores on him, and hosting over 100 ticks, he was actually in pretty good shape and is recovering just fine.
The constant theme underlying all the calls and the people we talked to in Peachtree City was that they really weren’t interested in the $300 reward we posted, but just hoped that we found Alex safe and sound.
Folks called and offered to assist us in the search, and many did, bringing their own greyhounds or whippets with them to help. The article in The Citizen served as a notification and reminder that Alex was out there and to stay alert.
In an increasingly compassionless world along with all the other struggles each of us face on a daily basis, it was heart-warming to see genuine concern and love from strangers over someone else’s pet.
I still believe that our community is God’s little secret to the world and a gift for those of us who found it. Again, thank you, The Citizen and the people of Peachtree City, for helping us find Alex.
Mike LaTella
Peachtree City, Ga.
