Around the Blogs: Missing Puppies, the Search for a Superintendent, and Digging Up the Leatherman

The New Haven Register is reporting today that two puppies stolen from the Animal Haven shelter Wednesday night have been safely returned...by the thieves themselves, no less.

On Thursday morning, one of the missing dogs, a shephard-chow mix, was dropped off at the North Haven animal shelter on Universal Drive. Police tracked the driver to his home, where the second puppy, a black lab, was also discovered. Two suspects in the dog-napping, a twenty-year-old man and woman from Hamden, CT, have burglary arrests pending against them. 

The criminal's motive: "They said they wanted a dog for Christmas," stated police.

In other search-related new, the North Haven Citizen posted a piece today saying that the Board of Education has cut the number of superintendent of schools applicants down from sixteen to four finalists. 

While the names of the finalists were not reported, two of the contenders have prior superintendent experience, while the remaining pair have acted as assistant superintendents in the past. The Board is expected to reach a decision for the position before the end of December. 

Lastly, in a new episode of North Haven News, Chris Kirby goes inside the grassroots effort to prevent the corpse of legendary 19th-century vagabond the Leatherman from being exhumed from his grave for scientific testing.

A taciturn wanderer of presumed French-Canadian origin with no known name or job, the Leatherman gained a reputation in the New Haven area for the consistent timing of his travels on an endless 365 mile loop between New York and Connecticut every 34 days, and his namesake, a suit he wore made entirely of hand-stitched leather. 

When a group of investigators recently announced that they planned on digging up the enigmatic hobo from his grave in Scarborough, NY in order to determine his true identity, a handful of people living along the Leatherman's original route, which included North Haven, banded together to oppose the unearthing.

Leave the Leatherman Alone, a site dedicated to letting "Ol' Leathery," as the site's operator Don calls him, "rest in peace", has this to say on the matter: 

"The Leatherman took the secrets of his identity to his grave—he fiercely guarded his privacy and lived humbly on the roads and hills of Connecticut and New York for over 30 years. Rarely did he speak, and his solitary life was one of mystery and wonderment for those that encountered him."

In animal kidnapping as in the historical record, sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.