The day? Dec. 17, 2004.
What happened? Rita Faircloth, 74, returned a dog to its El Cajon family.
Heartwarming tale? Truly. The Yorkshire terrier was the companion of an old man who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Did he notice his pal's disappearance? "He was still aware of the presence – and absence – of the little companion."
How do we know? "Because his only activity was to stroke him all day."
What is the Yorkie's name? Yorkie.
How did Yorkie get lost? On Dec. 16, he was in the family car while the elderly man's daughter ran errands. "She opened the door to go shopping and did not know that he had sneaked out."
How did Rita find him? "I pulled into the parking lot of the 99 Cent Store and almost hit him. He was running around."
What did Rita do? Took him home, then immediately placed an ad in the next day's newspaper.
What did the ad say? "Found: small black dog."
Anything else? The ad mentioned where the dog had been found, but little more. "I didn't even say it was a Yorkie."
Then what? On Dec. 17, the sixth call came from a woman. "She described him to the hair. She knew every little thing about it. I said, 'This is your dog.' "
When the woman arrived later that day, how did Yorkie react? "He was happy ..."
How did Rita react? " ... but I wasn't happy to see him go. He was such a nice dog."
Still, didn't Rita empathize with this family? Yes. "This whole story just moved me so."
Why? She has her own Yorkie, Sami – and Rita's brother died of Alzheimer's complications in 1996. "I had also been a speaker for Alzheimer's (Association) for years."
Tough job? "I just wanted to give back to the people who had helped me with my brother."
On Rita and Yorkie's last morning together, what did she have for breakfast? "Probably my usual of toast and tea. Lipton's green tea."
And Yorkie? "He had the same thing my little Yorkie had, a little bit of chicken. I cut it off the bone for him."
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