Baristanet reader and contributor Sue Kasdon tipped us off about this lost dog:

Junior, a 15-year-old, gray miniature poodle, was lost in West Orange on January 18. Junior needs medication, has bad teeth, and is senile, so he wouldn’t know how to find his way home.
He was wearing a red sweater when he disappeared.
People have told the owner that they may have seen Junior near Rosedale Cemetery in Montclair and on High Street in Orange.

If you find Junior please contact pets@baristanet.com.

52 replies on “Distraught Owner Offers $1,000 Reward for Lost Dog”

  1. Is this the same dog that was posted about a while ago?
    I hope that this little guy was able to get out of the frigid weather.

  3. Who are these people who see a dog in a collar or sweater walking alone and just keep going ?
    Would they pass an obviously lost child as well ?
    What you can do is bring the dog to the local animal hospital where they will scan it for a microchip, or you can call the police to ask if the owners have reported it missing. The animal hospital in Bloomfield works with the shelter to hold dogs until the owners come.
    I’ve done both and the dogs have been returned to their loved ones in less then a day.

  4. I have an almost 16 year old Yorkie with all the problems this little guy has plus others — we don’t let him out of our sight when he goes outside to do his business. You cannot leave these poor defenseless friends outside alone — ever. I pray that Junior has either found a loving person to take him in or that he is returned to his owner.
    There was a little 3-lb Papillon dog I returned numerous times to his owners on North Mountain — they were nasty to me everytime I brought him back and told me that they had owned him for 7 years so they thought they were doing a pretty good job with him then slammed the door in my face. Then, one day I saw signs all over town about their lost dog. I truly hope that dog found a new family.
    Keep a look out for Junior — you never know when the next amazing lost-dog story will happen.

  6. I’m not sure Tom, but I think butterfly means it’s the family who let the dog get lost as being the sad
    story…but having the dog be lost is also sad…

  8. Walleroo, I wish there wasn’t a need for this. 🙁
    Please, pet owners: invest in a “My Name Is _____, I Belong To______” tag for your dog or cat.

  9. The owners posted a sign on my street. I caught up with them, and I asked them to check with the local vets, the WO Animal Shelter, etc. I think somebody left the gate open, and Junior got out.
    Poop occurs, but MM’s right – Tags and microchipping are so important.

  10. or sadly, someone could have stolen junior, which would not at all surprise me…my prayers go out to junior and his family, who i am sure are heartbroken.

  11. I had a dog once who escaped when someone cut through my yard and left the gate open while the dog was outside. Someone in my neighborhood called Animal Control and he was taken to a shelter. BUT here’s the weird thing…He had a tag with our name address and phone number. No one called us. I found him because I started calling shelters hours after I started searching for him. I could not believe that not one person in the shelter bothered to call the number on his tag! When I got to the shelter I thanked them for rescuing him but asked why they did not check his tags. They just shrugged. I was astounded and would advise anyone missing a dog to call local shelters and be persistent about the description of the dog.
    I hope junior is somewhere warm tonight and reunited with his family soon.

  12. Did anyone else notice that this item dates back two weeks? Either, given the recent weather, Junior is safely back home or…

  13. Cathar, the dog has been missing for 2 weeks, the item does not date back that far because yesterday was the first day we got notice of it.

  14. I understand that people love their pets and all that, but I cringe whenever someone compares one to a human being (as one poster did above).
    To answer their question: No, I wouldn’t walk past a small, obviously lost child (though in this case an Alzheimer’s afflicted senior would make for a more apt comparison).
    The reason why is because the child is much less likely to bite me and infinitely less likely to be rabid.
    All that said: I do hope the owners find their dog (though after being outside for the last couple of weeks…).

  16. Mrs. Martta, you’re being, I hope, just a but purposely ingenuous here. It’s been two weeks since Junior went walkabout. Bad weather subsequently crept in. The doggie is described as senile and needing medication. I’m not prone to spinning dire scenarios, but still…
    (Of course, this possible scenario sounds much worse if it also turns out that his “protectors” simply waited almost two weeks to notify the Baristas.)

  17. It is time that we put a stop to the second class status of dogs in our society. If Junior were an elderly man and not a dog, police and health care workers would be combing the bushes and the boxes and the alleyways until they found him. Instead we have what seems like an unconscionably leisurely operation that may best be described in that crass vernacular phrase, half assed.
    While we are all at work or at home going about our daily lives in the warmth and comfort, a helpless being is freezing and starving to death. How can you sit there reading this post without dropping whatever you’re doing and joining in the hunt for Junior? The humans and the animals are co-dependents in this fragile planet of ours. To paraphrase Dick Gregory, if you’re not with us, you’re against us.

  18. It was previously reported on baristanet on the 20th (two days after it went missing).
    Not sure why it’s being reported again.

  19. “Not sure why it’s being reported again.”
    1. The dog is still missing.
    2. We now have a photo and a name.

  20. If posting it here again will raise awareness and help people find Junior, then why not?
    The important thing is to have Junior reunited with this guardians.

  21. No problem MM.
    It just seemed like this:
    “Cathar, the dog has been missing for 2 weeks, the item does not date back that far because yesterday was the first day we got notice of it.”
    indicated you thought this was a different dog, or hadn’t put 2 and 2 together.

  22. I am Junior’s family and for evrey one’s information we have been combing all the streets and all the outer towns from West Orange. He was spotted the day after he went missing ang Cops were called but they never showed up and he left the lady that was holding him. It is ridiculous how this society could care less about these poor creatures. He was so close to us but the police could care less. We have been going everywhere in search of him and also sending out pictures to the local vets and hospital. We even have a pet communicator and an animal dowser. We are not giving up. He has come out on El Diario la prensa and the Suburban News and tonight on Univision. No one else will here our story so we are greatful that Baristas has posted us. It seems it does get the word around. Also, on our quest to find Junior we found a dog this weekend. Please check this link to see if you know who’s dog this is? (https://cnj.craigslist.org/pet/1579534608.html) Well thanks for all the help we can get. If anyone has any connections to another web, newspaper, or tv channel, to get the work out please contact us. We have hope and will not give up on our search. Email me with any info dayana.escalante@gmail.com

  24. Jan. 31 was the first time a reader and contributor here gave us information about the owners, the reward money being put up, additional descriptive information, and the photo. She also said there were a number of missing dog posters around town. I knew this was the same dog but now that we additional information and a photo, I thought it would make sense to put it out there again.

  25. No I wasn’t blaming them but every day we called to check in and everyday they didn’t have our information so if someone had called in then nobody there would know. It’s sad how not even becasue we were persistant did they pay attention. Also, they never showed up I’m not saying they came late they just never responded. What is this? A bit much? Try if it was your best friend of 15 years. Then you wouldn’t be so blaze about the issue.

  26. I hope you find your dog. You are obviously in a lot of pain. I am not sure it’s proper for the police to dedicate resources to finding lost pets. I think the obvious choice for that is animal control.

  28. Sadly, animal control doesn’t contact you either if they have any of your information and if this was the case then police should transfer people to animal control. But they dont! Anyway, this dos hurt and I will not be looking atthis post anymore. If you can help then please do. We are very open to everyones help. Thank you everyone for the warm wishes. I do hope God will bring us together. Everyone enjoy your day and thank you.

  29. ROC – In many towns the police are in charge of animal control. If they do not handle it then they needed to tell the concerned citizen to call the correct place. On one asked the police to “dedicate resources to finding lost pets” The pet was found by a citizen who did not know where to bring it or how to handle the situation. The police could have simply told her, rather than say they were responding and not show up. Who knows how long that woman waited in the cold before the dog got away again. Very frustrating. My heart goes out to the family.

  30. ” The pet was found by a citizen who did not know where to bring it or how to handle the situation. The police could have simply told her, rather than say they were responding and not show up. Who knows how long that woman waited in the cold before the dog got away again. ”
    Seems like a lot of assumptions on your part. How do you know any of that happened? How do we know the cops didn’t show up? Who reported that?

  31. I found a little dog wandering around Caldwell last summer–in and out of traffic, almost got hit–so I scooped him up and put him in my car and called the police. They came about 20 minutes later and were very nice. Fortunately, the owner had been out combing the neighborhood and showed up at the exact same time, so Guardian and Dog were reunited.
    I have the say in that case, the cops were very nice and responsive, so it’s unfortunate that Junior’s family didn’t have the same experience–especially since someone had Junior.
    I really hope Junior is found. If one of my cats was missing,I would be devastated, so I understand completely how Junior’s owners must feel.

  32. I did not make any assumptions. It was reported by Juniors owner “Dayana” several posts above. Of course I did not fact check or find any witnesses to corroborate her story…Perhaps you would like to take charge of the investigation…

  33. If Montclair and surrounding towns weren’t so crime-ridden, perhaps you would feel differently about the local police (who your/their tax dollars pay for) helping a family find their beloved dog (who by the way is a living, breathing creature just like you).
    I had my car stolen in Verona/Montclair in broad daylight (yes, it was locked with an alarm set), and the police would not even give me a 5 minute ride home. They certainly aren’t going to get out of their cars to look for a lost dog. Sad to say.

  34. If this little guy is old with some dementia, his chances aren’t good, unless some kind sould took him in for their own.
    Presumbably, Junior had 15 good years with a loving family.
    Often times, at the end of life, really sh*tty things happen to animals and to people. It seems so cruel when misfortune is visited upon the elderly.
    I hope Junior is found. If he shows up in my neighborhood, I’ll grab him and let him bunk with Simba until he can be reunited with his owners.

  35. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. We’ve had a nasty cold spell. One would think that the only chance for him to have made it through this ordeal is if he was given shelter by someone, but it would be logical to assume that some shelter or animal control would have been contacted. That being said, we had a small dog jump out of the car back in the 60’s and left no stone unturned to find him, radio ads, reward, etc. Suddenly after about two weeks a family dropped him off at our house, They declined the reward.

  36. I can’t imagine actually accepting money for something like this (although I can understand why it is being offered). If I took in a lost dog, the most I would take upon return to the owners would be money for any fees I might have incurred while taking care of the little guy/girl.

  37. I would tell the owners that I would not accept a reward and would suggest that if they truly wanted to offer a monetary compensation to donate said amount to a local animal shelter.

  38. Man, some of you are hard-hearted. Knowing the dog’s owner is so upset and was (obviously) reading this thread, you feel the need to carp at her and tell her there’s no way her dog could have survived?
    I really hope that if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, strangers will be kind and helpful to you. But then again, some of you would probably find a way to complain about that, too.
    I’m disappointed to hear that the local PO hasn’t at least kept a notice up at the precinct that this family is looking for Junior. Nobody can tell me that would require some great amount of resource expenditure; it would just require a minimal amount of consideration by the police dept.
    A couple of years ago, I saw a dog weaving in and out of traffic on Broad St. in Bloomfield. She wouldn’t let me get close enough to grab her collar, but I called the Bloomfield cops from my cell phone to let them know I was trailing a lost dog that needed to be picked up and I followed her for about 45 minutes so I could flag them down if they had time to come get her.
    It took a little while, but they did find me and the dog as we wandered down the street, and don’t you know… when they opened the back door of their cruiser, that muddy, tired, hungry dog just jumped right in and curled up on the seat. They took her to the Bloomfield animal shelter, and when I called the next day her family, who’d been looking for her for weeks, had been reunited with her.
    I was so, so grateful that the Bloomfield PD took the time and care to get her to a safe place, and I know they made that family’s (and the dog’s!) year. I can only hope that if one of my dogs somehow were to get lost, someone would take the time to help them find their way back home. Whether you think a dog is ‘equal’ to a human or not, why not help when you can?

  39. Any distraught owner of a missing pet will do whatever is within their means to find the animal. Rewards are regularly offered for the return of pets. Perhaps they may motivate a group of teenagers to search for a lost pet, whereas they otherwise wouldn’t. It gets people’s attention, and helps the owner feel that they are doing all that they can. Obviously it would be wrong on many levels for a properly socialized adult to accept a reward for reuniting a pet with it’s owner. And lets avoid telling people what to do with their money, such as donating a reward to some cause if someone does the right thing and doesn’t accept it. That is a personal decision.

  40. Katie,
    Get mauled by someone’s “baby” (in my case a 90lb pit-bull), the 17 stitches in your arm (I was lucky to be wearing a motorcycle jacket at the time or it would have been much worse) and 6 rabies shots in your gut that come with “just to be on the safe side” and then you can question why some of us don’t follow strange dogs down the street to make sure they’re “ok”.
    I love dogs. I’ve lived with them all my life and have never once been afraid of a friend’s pet or any dog I’ve seen on a lead (including other pit bulls)… but, that doesn’t change the fact that I know first hand what these animals are capable of and give a human-less dog the same respect and distance that I would a coyote if I were to come across one in the wild.

  41. Mike, I’m sorry you had that experience, for a variety of reasons. I live with a pit bull and have a healthy respect for their strength. It sucks that you received such a bad injury.
    And of course it’s your prerogative to make your own choices about how you handle a situation with a stray dog. I feel confident enough in my reading of canine body language to make what I consider educated decisions (you might note that in the story above, I didn’t go to grab the dog, because she did seem so nervous–fortunately, she went into the cop car of her own volition). Perhaps that confidence will one day come back to bit me in the *ss when I handle a dog that doesn’t send ‘normal’ back-off signals, but that’s a risk I’m personally willing to take because I can’t stand the thought of leaving a lost dog on the street if I can find a way to help. I respect that not everyone feels the same.
    That said, I don’t see what motivates people to be cruel in their comments to someone who clearly is in a lot of pain over losing her beloved pet. And I do think it’s reasonable to expect the local police to make at least a minimal effort (eg, tell a caller who’s picked up a stray dog where she can take it, and keep a record of the owner’s phone number so that she can be reached if someone calls in a dog matching the description). If they’re willing/able to go above and beyond like those Bloomfield cops did, that’s wonderful.
    In my post above, I said “why not help when you can?” That doesn’t mean I think you should do what I would do. I guess I just don’t think people should be so damn mean about it.

  42. Yeah, that “sucks” that you got 17 stitches, Mike. I feel your pain. But really, next time try a little harder to read the dog’s body language, okay? I mean, you can’t blame the dog, can you?
    Dogs don’t bite people. People bite themselves.

  43. Dog behaviorists always tell people to 1. never disturb a dog while he’s eating, 2. never try to take a toy away from a strange dog, and 3. avoid making direct eye contact if you can.

  47. In the meantime, the night before last I received a “code red” phone message from the Montclair police about a missing 74 year old woman suffering from dementia and coaless last seen in the Bloomfield Ave area. Nothing on Baristanet and no followup info from the police. I hope both the woman and dog are safe and warm.

  49. as a Mail man in your area I have been looking ever day and mentioned your dog to the other Carriers in Orange/West Orange and the picture is Posted at work for all to see… hope for the best John

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