Vango, an Australian shepherd, may have assisted in his own recovery when he alerted personnel at a pet store in Gatineau, Quebec, about his alleged kidnapping.
Yves Jodoin, a canine trainer and employee at Au Royaume des Animaux, reported that Vango visited the establishment on Monday with a couple who typically buy cat food there.
The dog was barking, poking, and desperately in need of my attention, Jodoin recalled.
Jodoin claimed he was instantly concerned since the couple didn't appear to know the dog's basic details, such as his precise age, if he had been sterilized, what kind of food he ingested, and how much they had spent for him.
They were dodging the questions, said Jodoin. I was feeding the dog biscuits, but it didn't stop barking.
reported missing
A image of Vango appeared right away when a coworker checked social media for instances of pets being stolen. The dog's Buckingham, Quebec, home had been reported stolen around two and a half hours earlier.
Jodoin understood right away that he already knew Vango because he had reared the dog since he was a puppy.
I screamed, "Vango, come!" at once. The dog started to jump in response," Jodoin recalled. He kept prodding and barking as if to say, "Hey, I'm not the dog they say I am."
The couple claimed that they found the dog in the woods. Jodoin was informed by the woman that she intended to keep the puppy as a support animal due to her ill health and inability to pay for and train a dog.
Although the pair was besieged by observers at the store, Jodoin pressured them to give up the animal. The proprietor of Vango, Josée Francoeur, was then reached.
"Whenever I discuss it, I cry."
Francoeur said, "I can't talk about it without crying," when questioned about when she received Jodoin's call.
Francoeur reported the dog missing on Monday at nine o'clock after she let him out to use the restroom in her enclosed yard. She looked out the door and saw that Vango, who was unchipped, was gone.
Is there a chance he was abducted? Also, I said, "Who could do that? It cannot be done.
Soon after, Francoeur published a missing animal alert on several social media sites and the website of the neighborhood SPCA. She cried as she wandered through her neighborhood, asking everyone she saw whether they had seen her dog. A police officer intervened at one point to help and filed a formal report of a lost dog.
She was starting to lose faith as her phone rang.
Imagine, Francoeur continued, "If those people hadn't gone to that pet store, I would have lost my dog forever."
There was a police complaint.
She has now reported the couple to the police so they are aware of the consequences of their actions.
I don't want to make them uncomfortable. We don't know what drives them. They did, however, also take my infant at the same time, added Francoeur. I want to caution people not to do this.
Gatineau police said they must demonstrate the couple willfully stole the puppy rather than discovering him by mistake during their inquiry before filing charges.
The SPCA de L'Outaouais, where the couple had brought Vango that morning to register the dog with a new name, is using the event to compel dog owners to microchip their pets.
Francoeur stated that he had arranged for Vango to be chipped at a specific time.
"This could have all been avoided," she claimed.