Pawtastic Dogs

SANGER – Ashley Johnson thought she was doing the right thing.

The golden retriever ambling along McReynolds Road seemed lost. She was worried it would be hit by a car. She picked it up and brought it back to her Sanger home.

First, she tried calling the number listed on the tag. The person who answered didn't speak English very well but said someone would come claim the dog. When no one did, Johnson got suspicious. Maybe the dog's true owner got a new phone, she thought.

She called the veterinarian listed on the rabies tag, reading to the person who answered the phone both the dog's name, Kenzy, and the tag number.

"She said they had no records for that name or number," Johnson said.

She couldn't risk exposing her own dogs, including a new puppy, by keeping Kenzy at home. She had rescued one of her dogs from the city's animal shelter three years ago, so she was confident that Kenzy would be all right at the shelter.

She didn't realize that her decision would create a domino effect that would culminate in the dog being put down.

"I feel Kenzy's dead because of me," she said.

Sam and Kelli Alexander thought they did the right thing, hiring a sitter to look after their animal menagerie – reptiles, exotic birds and the dogs – while they vacationed in South America.

They live on a large tract of land on McReynolds Road, just outside the city limits, and the dogs stay outside, Sam Alexander said. Kenzy sometimes scores treats at the neighbor's place, so he wasn't too surprised that the sitter didn't notice she was missing.

Kelli Alexander said that Kenzy was registered, had undergone obedience training and, with five years as a therapy dog, was good with the clients at Day Stay for Adults, where she visited. When the couple returned home and realized Kenzy was gone, they began a frantic search.

"I drove for miles, looking in the ditches," Sam Alexander said.

One of Kelli Alexander's first calls was to Sanger's animal control department. She called at 1:44 p.m. June 22. She made her query of two different employees – only the first of whom identified herself as with county dispatch – and was told to call Denton's animal shelter because "they take animals there."

The couple didn't know that Kenzy was still alive that day, with the clock counting down, at Sanger's animal shelter. The couple continued to make calls, put notices in local papers and pass out fliers, including one at veterinarian Lynn Stucky's office.

Fellow veterinarian Sherri Swanton said that she remembered the flier but that unfortunately, without a microchip, Kenzy could not be distinguished from any other golden retriever. She could only think of one reason why they didn't recognize the rabies tag.

"If it was old, the number for a newer tag would have wiped it from the database," Swanton said, adding that the older number would only be retrievable from the paperwork in the family's file.

Two weeks later, Johnson saw one of the notices and called the Alexanders. She told them her story and that, as far as she knew, the city animal shelter could still have Kenzy.

The couple called the Police Department and asked that someone meet them at the shelter. They waited there while the responding officer checked for their dog. When she returned, she told the Alexanders that Kenzy wasn't there, then called the dog catcher and handed the phone to Sam Alexander.

He tried to listen to the dog catcher's explanation of what had become of Kenzy while his wife howled with grief in the background.

Kenzy had been euthanized June 25.

Sanger does the right thing, Police Chief Curtis Amyx said, by forwarding calls to the county dispatchers when their clerks are taking a lunch break or can't otherwise answer the phone.

He said it was unfortunate that Kelli Alexander didn't realize she was talking to county dispatchers and not the city. Had the family talked with either the police or the animal control officer, the dog would have been returned to them, Amyx said.

The majority of animals the city picks up are reunited with their owners and not kept at the shelter, Amyx said. Once at the shelter, though, animals must be claimed within 72 hours or, by ordinance, become property of the city. The city has 12 cages for cats and 10 kennels for dogs.

In 2008, the city housed 183 dogs and 131 cats. Fifty-two of them were euthanized. In 2009, the city housed 76 dogs and 75 cats. Eleven of those animals were adopted, 14 were transferred to rescue groups, and the remaining 126 were euthanized.

The shelter is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Amyx said. Johnson, the Alexanders and other residents say they haven't visited the shelter in years.

Along with the water treatment plant, the shelter sits behind a locked gate, surrounded by security fence, and monitored by video surveillance. A water department employee tells visitors who punch the call button that they must be escorted by the animal control officer in order to visit the shelter.

Stucky, a local veterinarian, comes once a week, or as the city requests, to put down the unwanted animals.

To do the right thing by the animals, Texas health code requires each city in a county with a population over 75,000 to have an animal welfare board overseeing their shelter, said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

With a population of less than 8,000, Sanger does not have such a board, Amyx said.

Last year, Kelli Alexander worked with a youth group on various community service activities, including making dog treats and dog toys they planned to take to a local shelter. She called Sanger first, scheduling an appointment for a visit that the city later canceled.

The youth group went to the Denton shelter instead, playing with the dogs and getting to know them.

Kelli Alexander said a city employee told her at the time that the public was not allowed into the shelter.

Looking back now, she said, that news should have spurred her into action.

"I never thought my precious animal would end up there, and so it wasn't really my problem to deal with," she said.

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