YAY! Finally, a happy news story! Funny how we were just chatting about microchips, too. $39 is definitely a good deal for one!
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North Fort Myers couple Betty and Dale Lerch said Friday marked the first time this week that their dog, Alex, started behaving like normal.
The 8-pound Yorkshire terrier endured a tough couple of days, starting Sunday after he slipped outside to do his business at the couple’s 21⁄2-acre residence on Orchid Road. He normally returns through the back door after a few minutes, but this time he didn’t.
Dale Lerch spent hours outside searching with a flashlight and calling for his beloved pet.
Hours passed, then a day.
Nothing.
“It brought him to tears,” Betty Lerch said. “It really is his dog.”
Lerch, 63, spent much of Monday driving in the North Fort Myers area between Pine Island and Pondella Road, putting up lost-dog signs while still looking for Alex.
They finally got the news they were looking for Tuesday night. Wendy and Matt Devereaux were driving east on Pondella Road when traffic stopped in front of Windrush Apartments.
A woman hit Alex with her vehicle shortly after 6 p.m. and was comforting the dog on the side of the road.
“She felt horrible,” Wendy Devereaux said. “It was unresponsive and was kind of quivering.”
The couple offered to take the injured dog to the Emergency Veterinary Clinic at 11609 S. Cleveland Ave. in Fort Myers.
But no one knew who owned the dog, since it had no collar and no tags. Lerch had removed the collar the night the dog disappeared because he was going to give Alex a bath.
While X-raying the dog, vets discovered a microchip in his neck. They scanned the chip, which came back to Lerch.
Alex was nursed back to health to the tune of nearly $765. He still has a shaven leg from where the IV was placed, but there are no signs of the burrs and sticks that were cut out of his stringy brown hair.
“We were so happy. I was going to take him home,” said Wendy Devereaux, who was willing to pay the initial $290 in emergency care for the dog so it wouldn’t be taken to a shelter. The couple works in The News-Press advertising department.
Alex still needs about $300 worth of dental work because he suffered chipped teeth in the accident.
The Lerches, who bred Yorkshire terriers for about 20 years as a hobby, are thankful they paid the $39 for Alex’s microchip.
“Without that chip, we would have never gotten him back,” Dale Lerch said.
http://www.news-press.com/news/local...24lostdog.html