BEMIDJI -- The blind dog that was highlighted in Tuesday's Bemidji Pioneer has found a home --his own -- as he was reunited with his owners Tuesday night.
While Sarah Stahelin of Wilton, Minn., was searching for the owners of the dog after she took him into her home in May, the owners were searching for the spaniel, whose real name is Teal, Stahelin said. But somehow they never crossed paths.
"The surprising thing to me is how many big-hearted people there are in Bemidji," Stahelin said. "I have had so many e-mails and calls of people wanting to give Iggy a good home. I am touched."
Because of a misunderstanding, the dog was incorrectly identified as "Icky" in Tuesday's Pioneer. Stahelin actually called him "Iggy."
Stahelin brought the dog to Wally's Oil Co. in Wilton to be reunited with his owners, who did not wish to be identified. The grateful owner offered to give her something for her trouble, but she told him she didn't need any compensation.
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"The reunion went very well," she said. "The owner ... was very happy to have Teal back. He had raised him since he was a tiny pup and Teal was from England originally."
The owners live just off Minnesota Highway 89, where Stahelin found the injured dog in May. He had apparently gotten loose the day before, she said. The owners told her the dog's blindness had come on gradually.
"I do miss him. The house seems emptier without him," Stahelin said. "But when the owner told me how distraught his wife had been, I knew I did the right thing by giving him back."
Stahelin said in her childhood, she lost a dog for just a day and felt terrible.
"I can't imagine how they were feeling, knowing that Teal was lost and possibly dead all this time," she said. "You always feel guilty when a pet goes missing, but thinking about a blind dog being missing really is too much."
The Bemidji Pioneer and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.
