North Reading Police Gives Reading Resident a Belated Christmas Gift

Photo caption: Kona after being reunited on Friday. Photo credit: North Reading Police Department.

From North Reading Police Department:

On Dec. 19 sometime after 11 p.m., we received a call from a Reading resident who wanted to report that his dog had gone missing.

According to the caller, his 3-year-old, 35-pound female Japanese Kai Ken named “Kona” had “slipped her harness” at the conclusion of a walk and was now missing. Kona’s owner told us that Reading Police had taken a report of a dog fitting Kona’s description, which had possibly been hit by a car in the area of Main Street that evening. Kona’s owner told us that he spent much of the next six hours in the woods, looking for what he believed was his scared and injured dog, with no luck.

Kona’s distraught owner was asked to forward any biographical information for Kona, as well as an up to date image of her, so that we could try to assist him by placing the information on our various social media sites, which consequently have successfully reunited missing pets with their owners several times over the past few months. Unfortunately, the email was not received until sometime the next day and the information did not get posted.

After seeing Kona’s owner’s email response on Dec. 22, North Reading Police reached out to Kona’s owner to check on Kona’s status. Kona’s owner reported that after a long and difficult search in the woods between Reading and North Reading that he had located what he believed was Kona’s remains.

Kona’s owner believed that she had been attacked by wild animals after being injured by the car sometime before or after her death. We sadly passed on our condolences to Kona’s owner for his loss as well as our regret that we were unable to help him in locating her in safe condition. We later learned that Kona had also been posted by her owner as “Missing” on the Granite State Dog Recovery, Facebook page. That page had since been updated reporting Kona’s suspected untimely demise.

Fast forward to the morning of Dec. 26. North Reading Police Officer Greg Connolly, who was off duty at the time, called into North Reading Police headquarters to report that there was an unknown dog that had somehow gotten into his fenced in back yard. The dog was described as small, black, and not wearing any collar. Officer Connolly reported that the dog could even have been some type of wild animal.

The description of the dog was immediately recognized as consistent with Kona’s description previously provided by her owner. In fact, when Kona’s owner initially reported her missing, he stated that people may even mistake her for a fox or a wolf.

Officer Connolly was able to send several images of the animal to NRPD headquarters to include one of the animal trying to get into his house by the rear door. The images of Kona, originally sent to us by her owner were then compared to the images taken by Officer Connolly and the results were seemingly a match. Officer Connolly was able to safely secure the dog by “lassoing” the dog with a leash until she could be transferred over to the custody of North Reading Animal Control.

A phone call was then placed to Kona’s owner who was visiting family in New York. Upon hearing that his beloved pet may still be alive, he informed us that he was packing his bags and driving back immediately. Kona’s owner told us that he had given up hope after he had found and buried the remains of an animal that he believed was Kona on Dec. 22.

He went onto explain that he and his family had been devastated by the loss of Kona and that his other dog had almost completely stopped eating since Kona had gone missing out of what he suspected was stress. We explained to Kona’s owner that although we believed that images taken by Officer Connolly that were sent to him were in fact Kona, we could not be sure until he arrived and was able to confirm it.

During the afternoon of Dec. 26 Kona’s owner arrived at Grooming Unlimited, located at 238 Park St., after a five-and-a-half-hour drive from New York. Kona’s owner was able to confirm that Officer Connolly had in fact found his missing and presumed dead dog, Kona.

Kona was successfully reunited with her owner and her canine house companion, Yoshi who is a Shiba Inu. An update was eventually sent to the Granite State Dog Recovery Facebook page reporting the good news.

Kona’s owner asked that we include the location where he had buried the remains of the animal that he had found and believed to be Kona. He was very concerned that someone else may still be missing and looking for that deceased dog/animal. The location the animal was buried was to the right of the entrance to the Bare Meadow, Mattera Conservation Area, located at 1501 Main St., in Reading, which is just south of the Reading/North Reading line on Main Street.

Kona’s owner also wanted people to know that when he posted his dog missing on the Internet, there were numerous scam artists who reached out to him and tried to exploit him for profit with schemes to return his missing dog. He wanted others to be aware of it in the event they need to do the same so that they are not taken advantage of during their vulnerable time missing a lost pet.

Although we were initially unable to assist in getting Kona home, we are grateful that one of our officers was fortunate enough to locate, and safely recover Kona, who had been missing for one week from her family, which led to us getting her home.

After witnessing the reunion, it was safe to say that it was in fact a very Merry Christmas for Kona and her family. Even after being on her own for a week, Kona was determined to be in good health and maybe just five pounds lighter.