The owners of an eight-month-old Boston Terrier were reunited with their puppy Saturday afternoon after it was allegedly stolen from their neighbour’s front yard in Toronto last night.
“What a relief,” the dog’s owner Jan Duffy told CTV News Toronto Saturday afternoon.
After Duffy and her family members posted their missing puppy, Blue, on social media, a stranger responded saying a dog was found at a shelter.
When Duffy and her husband Mike Kinnear called the shelter, their description of Blue fit the puppy and they rushed over to pick up Blue, a Boston Terrier with a black body, white face and speckled ears.
While Duffy said the shelter told them that the person who dropped off the dog said they found a stray and was trying to help, the owners think otherwise.
“We are convinced this was not a good Samaritan,” she said. “You don’t keep a dog from 6 p.m. until today.”
Their suspicion is also based on their neighbour’s surveillance camera footage, which captured the incident involving Blue.
In the video, taken just before 6 p.m. on Friday, a dark car can be seen driving a few doors past their neighbour’s house on Homestead Road before abruptly braking and reversing back towards the house. Then the driver is seen opening his window.
"You can see him calling out the window,” Kinnear said.
After a few moments, the dog runs across the street to the car and the driver quickly opens his door, scoops up the dog and places it in the passenger seat before closing the door and taking off.
“He usually never leaves the backyard,” Kinnear said. But in this case, the puppy wandered to their neighbour’s front yard four doors down.
“You know what puppies are like, they’ll go to anyone,” Duffy said.
During Blue’s disappearance, his brother Beau, also owned by Duffy and Kinnear, sensed his sibling’s absence, the owners say.
“He’s not doing anything,” Duffy said on Saturday morning, before Blue was found. “He knows his brother is missing.”
Toronto police confirmed they attended the scene of a dog stolen at Morningside and Lawrence avenues on Friday just before 11 p.m. At this point in time, police said the events are under investigation.
In the meantime, Blue’s owners say they are grateful for their reunion this afternoon after the “devastating” and “shocking” events.
“I’m so thankful,” Duffy said.
