By Lisa Peterson

A storm approaches and when you run outside to close the windows of your car, you notice the gate is open and your dog is gone!

“Miss Marple! Miss Marple! Where are you?”

This was the scenario played out Monday two weeks ago when Lonnie Kotowski went to prep for the storm. After an extensive search during the next few hours turned up nothing, Lonnie and his wife, Erica, turned in for the night without their beloved Norwegian elkhound sleeping by the side of their bed.

The next morning I got a call from Erica requesting help to locate Miss Marple. I had placed Miss Marple with the Kotowski’s about 10 months ago. A retired brood bitch from a friend’s breeding kennel, Miss Marple had settled nicely into her new loving home.   

Being in this situation before, when Norwegian elkhounds have escaped, I went into action. Immediately I went to work on a flyer with a photo. I didn’t have a photo of Miss Marple, an 8-year-old female, slightly plump and graying, but I thought to use a photo which best represented an elkhound from the side. While the photo I chose was of a two-year-old male elkhound with more black markings than Miss Marple, I was looking to convey the distinct curly tail and square profile. After the flyers were printed I realized Miss Marple had had a sex change operation. 

Within an hour I had 100 flyers printed and an ad placed in The Bee. We spoke to the mailman, the joggers on the road, neighbors and, in fact, anyone we saw to tell them about Miss Marple and hand them a flyer. We had placed numerous flyers all around the area in stores, banks, shops and the post office. However, the postmaster felt the post office was not a community bulletin board and took them down shortly thereafter.

The first days after the flyer distribution yielded nothing. No sightings near the Kotowski’s Mile Hill Road South residence adjacent to the former Fairfield Hills grounds. All of us were making daily trips in our automobiles looking for Miss Marple with no luck.

As soon as The Bee hit the newsstands, the calls began. We had a few sightings somewhere between Walnut Tree Hill Road and Sandy Hook Center on Church Hill Road on Friday. So for a few days we checked the dumpsters behind the stores and restaurants, thinking she might be looking for food because she is such a “chow hound.” No luck.

Both the Kotowskis and I had some calls from people. Based on their descriptions I felt these were not legitimate and did not follow them. They were scattered around town and included one sighting of a two-different-colored-eyed dog near Riverside. That dog was definitely not our brown-eyed beauty, Miss Marple.

Then around 5 pm on Labor Day – seven days after the disappearance – I got a call from my pet sitting clients Susan and Jeff Racow. They had just been to the Big Y and spotted Miss Marple while driving down Queen Street. They followed her into the meadows just below the red barn on the left hand side of the road near the town-owned properties.

They parked the car and followed her on foot down an abandoned road towards the farm property at Fairfield Hills. When they tried to approach her, she took off into the nearby woods.

When the Racows returned home, they called me. Jeff, who had elkhounds as a child, knows the breed and gave a detailed description including the differences between Miss Marple and the flyer photo. Jeff said she was female, slightly plump and graying.

My husband, Ray, and I went to the site. I was convinced this was her based on Jeff’s description. I called the Racows again and got an even more detailed site location. Ray, Lonnie and I went in different directions and all we came up with were three extended walking tours of Fairfield Hills.    

When we met up again all we could find was a pile of dog poop on the cracked old road near a stream in the woods.

“Does it look like Miss Marple’s?” I asked Lonnie.

“I can’t tell,” he saod. “Maybe, after seven days without food, who knows.”

 It was getting dark and we all headed home – disappointed again – but hopeful since this was a solid sighting located less than one half mile from her home.

The next morning Lonnie got a phone call around 7 am on another sighting near Queen Street and Elizabeth Street. She was still in the area. Lonnie ran out to take another look. He said he went back to the area were we had located the dog poop and began to really feel the frustration, disappointment and sadness of losing Miss Marple. He thought he should walk into the woods where she might be instead of sticking to the roads. He went in to the woods near the stream and walked the paths calling her name.

And then as mysteriously as she had disappeared, Lonnie felt a nudge at his leg and turned to see Miss Marple. He didn’t hear her coming. He had no clue she was near. But, amazingly, there she was! Happy to see him yet not totally ready to come home, as Lonnie slipped her collar over her head, she balked a bit as if to say, “Can’t I play in the woods just a little bit longer?”

We all love happy endings and I want to thank the Racows for their efforts, as it was their sighting and description that really led us to Miss Marple. And if you do see a dog on a missing poster, please call, it may be the one clue that leads to another happy ending.

Easements to remain open

Danbury Superior Court Judge Arthur Hiller ruled in favor of the Newtown Bridle Lands Association in the lawsuit regarding a public easement into Huntington State Park at 42 Greenleaf Road. The August 31 decision came in a lawsuit filed by property owner Marcia Cavanaugh contesting the legality of the easement based on the dissolution of a developer’s partnership. Basically, this means the easement, located on the AT&T buried cable line easement, remains open to the public, horses and pedestrians, as it always has been.

In my next column I will discuss the judge’s decision in greater detail. 

Lisa Peterson is the Public Education Coordinator for the Newtown Kennel Club, the AKC Delegate for the Norwegian Elkhound Association of America and owner of Peterson Pet Sitting. She can be reached at 270-1732 or elvemel@usa.net