After 10 months on the road with a Canadian man who allegedly stole him and fled to Riverton, Wyoming, a miniature poodle named Teddy is now home with his owner.
“I’m so grateful to have Teddy home, it still feels like a dream,” Alaina Tripp, Teddy’s owner and a resident of Ottawa, Ontario, told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday. “I’m so grateful to the people in Riverton.”
RPD Officer Don Nethicumara stopped Ottawa man Paul Sheehan, 50, on the night of July 24, and discovered both a meth straw and Teddy in the man’s possession, according to a police report from the incident.
As Nethicumara searched for more information, he learned that Teddy was associated with a stolen dog report out of Canada.
Though the officer originally ticketed Sheehan and sent him off with a court date, Nethicumara circled back and seized Teddy from Sheehan later that week. Then, when Sheehan moved on to Cody, Wyoming, Nethicumara called him and persuaded him to come back to Riverton, where he arrested him on the follow-up advice of the Fremont County Attorney’s Office, according to prior interviews and police documents.
Very Spoiled
Teddy was still a long way from home without a way to get there, but he landed at the right police department, Shannon Sanderson, Riverton Police Department animal control officer, told Cowboy State Daily on Saturday.
“He was very spoiled when he was here,” Sanderson said. “We do have a lot of dog lovers in the whole department.”
Sgt. Charlie Marshall fostered Teddy for a few days and let the dog play with his kids and sleep in his home, Tripp told Cowboy State Daily.
Nearly a month after the Riverton PD found Teddy, he arrived home in Canada with Tripp on Friday. The little poodle’s final journey home was an epic one, covering more than 3,500 miles.
On Saturday, she said Teddy still wouldn’t part with a toy rooster that Marshall bought for him.
Sanderson called the mission to get Teddy home a “team effort.”
But Whitney Fontes, manager of the Paws for Life Animal Shelter in Riverton, gave Sanderson credit for working out the logistics.
Sanderson arranged for Fontes to drive from Riverton to Denver on Thursday — a five-and-a-half-hour trip. She also donated the cost of the Denver hotel room for Fontes and Teddy out of her own pocket.
Fontes then met with a carrier service, Pets Fly, to get Teddy onto a plane headed from Denver to Los Angeles.
Teddy spent a night in Los Angeles, then made a five-hour flight across North America to Toronto, Canada. He arrived at about 11 p.m. Friday, Toronto time.
Tripp had paid the $1,100 airline tickets out of a GoFundMe campaign her friend set up for her, which shot from about $700 Canadian dollars to more than $3,000 after a Cowboy State Daily story about Teddy was published.
In Toronto, Tripp produced paperwork to prove Teddy was hers. She paid $38 for a veterinarian exam to ensure the dog was safe to bring into the country, plus a $192 airline handling fee, she said.
Then she got to see Teddy.
‘Jumped Into My Arms’
Tripp was certain Teddy remembered her, though he was just 4 months old when he was taken from her home last September.
“He jumped into my arms and I just sat there on the ground and held him for probably a good four to five minutes,” Tripp said.
Teddy is a happy dog that Fontes described as bubbly and affectionate. While at a National Night Out event in Riverton he “loved on” a litter of puppies, bounded around and went for several walks, Fontes said.
After Nethicumara first brought Teddy to the police department, he found his fur matted and temperament little hyper, as if he’d had cabin fever, but the officer didn’t see signs of abuse, he said.
Sanderson said Loretta Boss of Boss’ Bark Boutique donated a hair and nails grooming appointment for the little poodle.
Moving On
Teddy was a little confused in the Toronto hotel room Friday night when Tripp shut off the lights, but he soon hunkered down into bed with her like no time had passed since their parting, she said.
During her interview Saturday morning, Tripp was making the five-hour drive home from Toronto to Ottawa. Lori and Arthur Barutski, of the Ottawa and Valley Lost Pet Network, provided the ride, which was their donation to the cause, Tripp said.
Teddy is always thrilled to get out of the truck, but he has a hard time getting back into it. Tripp said she believes Teddy was living in Sheehan’s truck for the 10 months he was missing.
She’s tried using positive reinforcement, like offering him chicken and promising Teddy he’ll never live in a truck again, she said.
The whole project cost about $2,000 in Canadian dollars as a rough estimate, said Tripp. Any remaining money in the GoFundMe account will go toward Teddy’s upcoming vet visit, since he’s due to his shots, and the rest will then be sent to the Paws for Life Animal Shelter, said Tripp.
Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
