Another dog's bark ends a six-day search for Yorkie

The Baltimore Sun

They called in private investigators and a helicopter pilot, a psychic with an angel etched into her door and a pair of pet-tracking dogs.

But of all the methods that Rhonda Fish and Brian Davis used in the search for their missing Yorkshire terrier, it was the most ordinary of occurrences that led to Reilly's return yesterday.

One dog barked at another.

Six days after the not-quite-3-year-old pup dashed away while out for a walk near a ravine in White Marsh, he was reunited with his owners.

"I saw him from across the parking lot - his long skinny legs - and I just started shaking," Fish said. "I grabbed him and I hugged him and I hugged him and I just kept saying, 'Reilly, Reilly, Reilly.' Oh my God, I'm just in a total state of shock."

The drama that began last Monday night came to a conclusion yesterday afternoon with a phone call from a man walking his own dog.

Jay Goldstein, 43, of Kensington was driving home from a family vacation in Rhode Island when he decided to stop in White Marsh for a bite to eat and a bathroom break - for his human relatives as well as for Misty, their 5 1/2 -year-old Siberian husky. He let his family out at a fast-food restaurant and took the dog for a walk.

"As we got across the street, Misty must have heard something or picked up a scent," he said. "I heard a yelp and thought it was a field mouse or something. But then I heard a few more yelps."

Misty barked back. And Goldstein said he realized there was a small dog deep in the ravine.

On his way back across the street, Goldstein saw one of the thousands of fliers that Reilly's owners had plastered like wallpaper across the area. Goldstein dialed the listed phone number and reached Davis.

"I said, 'I think I might have located your dog,'" Goldstein recalled.

It was a statement that Davis and Fish had heard repeatedly in the days since their terrier went missing.

"When Brian told me, I was thinking, 'You know what? We've done this so many times this week,'" Fish said. "I just can't take it anymore."

Davis, 48, a partner in an apparel company, called the pet trackers who were continuing their search for Reilly in another area of White Marsh and dispatched them back to the ravine where the terrier ran away July 23.

Fish, 44, a construction project coordinator, got in her car and headed - once again - to meet another person who said he had found her beloved pet.

"By the time I was turning the corner onto the parking lot, I was thinking it's got to be Reilly. It can't not be Reilly," she said.

And then she saw him.

Goldstein, a former sports marketing director who is working toward a doctorate in sport psychology at the University of Maryland, had since pulled Reilly out of the ravine, where he said the terrier's blue leash was entangled in the thick brush of the marsh. When the dog spotted Fish, his tail started wagging and he began pulling toward his owner.

"I wasn't about to let his leash go until she could grasp him," Goldstein said, laughing. "It was a very joyous reunion on both sides."

Davis and Fish, who have no children, say they spent thousands of dollars on the search Reilly, who is like a son to them.

After Reilly ran away, they called in private investigators to do a thorough ground search and a helicopter pilot, who flew low over the marshy area around a White Marsh hotel where the couple was staying while their Towson condo undergoes repairs.

Fish sought the advice of a psychic named Beverly, who told her that Reilly would be returned Wednesday between noon and 3 p.m. (He was not.)

They repeatedly increased the rewards offered for information leading to Reilly's return.

And they have been working with a pair of women affiliated with Pet Hunters International who have search dogs trained to find missing pets. (Because Goldstein would not accept the reward money, Fish and Davis say they intend to donate it to the pet trackers and to other organizations that can help pet owners when their animals go missing.)

"He hasn't changed one bit," she said as Reilly barked and leapt around their hotel room.

"He looks exactly the same and is acting as ornery and feisty as he was before he left on vacation."

Laughing, she added, "He said he had a real nice time on his vacation. He went camping and said he didn't understand why everyone was so upset."

jennifer.mcmenamin@ baltsun.com

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