Stolen pup is returned to owners; thieves on lam
Bow wow WOW!
A spunky but sickly spaniel, dog-napped by two cruel curs from the lobby of her Brooklyn apartment building last week, shared a joyous reunion with her owners when two strangers returned little Lulu to a local veterinarian.
“Lulu was happy and licking my face,” said overjoyed owner Orit Avraham, who presciently had a microchip implanted in her beloved King Charles spaniel only days before the dog disappeared.
“I wasn’t expecting to find her again. [We thought] maybe she’s out of state. I was worried they’d do something bad to her.”
Avraham and her teen daughter rushed to the 4 Legged Friends/Jacobson Veterinary Clinic after getting the call Monday from clinic manager Debbie Sciarabba.
“The smile on her daughter’s face was enough to warm my heart,” said Sciarabba. “It’s a miracle story.
What are the chances?”
The 4-month-old dog, who needs medication for a heart murmur and a hernia, bolted from the apartment on June 3 when Avraham, 49, was taking the plastic wrapping from her son’s birthday cake out to the trash. “I didn’t want Lulu to get the chocolate from the wrapping,” she recalled. “I went to throw out the garbage and she went the other direction. She wanted to get out and play. I didn’t know she was following me.”
The family was sharing the cake for the boy’s 10th birthday when Orit realized there was something missing from the celebration: her dog, barking for a taste of dessert. It was quickly apparent that Lulu was missing.
“My son said it was his worst birthday,” she recalled.
The family later learned their adventurous pooch scampered onto an elevator with a neighbor, taking a five-floor ride down to the lobby. Lulu had just wandered out of the elevator when she was grabbed, with the thieves caught on surveillance video exiting the building with the pilfered pooch.
“Someone would’ve returned her to us, if those people that didn’t belong in the building weren’t there,” Orit said.
The devastated family conducted daily searches for the dog and even violated the 8 p.m. citywide curfew imposed by Mayor de Blasio amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd to search for their beloved Lulu.
“I went out in the pouring rain,” said Avraham.
“My 14-year-old was with me. It was past curfew because someone thought they saw my dog but we didn’t see her. We had about 50 or 60 photos made that we handed out to [veterinarians]. We were crying out her name.”
After not hearing a word about their pet for five days, Avraham received a Monday phone call that made her heart soar. Local vet Stella Blanca Panzariano and manager Sciarabba reached out to say a couple showed up with a new pet but were concerned she was possibly a stolen dog. A scan of the chip revealed the real owners.
“When they found her, I was in delight and shock. The kindness of people is really amazing,” said Avraham.
The canine-kidnappers remain on the run.