CO: Strangers, Englewood cops work to get lost dog home

Strangers, Englewood cops work to get lost dog home

By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post

Posted: 12/24/2009 08:23:44 AM MST

Updated: 12/24/2009 08:42:41 AM MST

Greta was lost for several months (courtesy Ron Chisholm)

Maybe she just got tired of running.  Whatever the reason, a spunky, smart and possibly scared year-old sheltie named Greta ran straight into the arms of Englewood police Sgt. Brian Cousineau about 7 a.m. Tuesday.    The little Sheltie, the product of a Kansas puppy mill, had been on the run nearly five months in the Littleton, Cherry Hills and Englewood area.  And during those five months, the couple that had adopted Greta — Ron and Valerie Chisholm of unincorporated Jefferson County — didn't stop looking for her, putting out hundreds of fliers alerting people to be on the lookout for the sheltie.  The Chisholms have raised shelties for 25 years.    Having spent her first year in a puppy mill, Greta was afraid of people. After the Chisholms got her in July, she stayed away from them. But as time progressed, she would come into the house and timidly join the Chisholms and their three other shelties.  About six weeks after they got her, Ron Chisholm was bringing in groceries and left the front gate open.  Greta raced out.    Over the next five months, people called the Chisholms with reports they had seen the dog and even left food out for her.  But Greta was never approachable and scampered away from people.  When it became clear the dog was hanging out in Englewood, some 20 miles from his home, Ron Chisholm talked to Englewood Police Commander Gary Condreay and asked for his assistance.  Condreay alerted his code and patrol officers as well as dispatchers.     And early Tuesday, after spotting the dog near a school in Englewood, officers followed her to a nearby backyard. There, according to Condreay, Greta apparently decided to do something she had not done in her five months on the run: approach a human being, specifically Cousineau. He gently grabbed her.  "You should have seen the look on the Chisholms' faces," said Condreay. "It was a nice Christmas present for them."    Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14063848#ixzz0acjknoJg