Brick Woman Wants To Give Dogs' Rescuers Credit They're Due

BRICK, NJ -- A Brick Township woman says she was honored to find a bottle of wine on her porch, a thank-you gift from neighbors whose dogs had gotten loose during the weekend's storm.

But she says the real thanks belong to someone else.

"Although I provided a safe haven for the pups, the couple that stopped are the real heroes," Joann, who asked that her last name be withheld, said in a message to the Patch.

Joann said the dogs, a male and female, both shepherd mixes, had squeezed out of their owners' backyard Saturday morning after the storm loosened a corner of the neighbors' backyard fence.

Particularly concerning, she said, is they live not far from Chambersbridge Road.

"A young couple traveling up Chambersbridge noticed the pups running around by my place and stopped to prevent them from getting onto the main road," Joann said. "They knocked on my door to see if they were mine or if I knew who they belonged to, which I didn't."

Joann and the couple brought the dogs inside her home to keep them safe and she called animal control in hopes the dogs' owners could be found via their license tags or if they were microchipped, she said.

While they were waiting for animal control, a man and a teenager came past "obviously searching," she said, and within minutes reunited the dogs with their owners, she said.

The owners had just recently gotten the dogs from a rescue shelter down south, Joann said. "They were both very calm and well behaved. And cute!" she said.

Wednesday morning she stepped outside to have her morning coffee and found the bottle of wine with the note, "signed" by the dogs, thanking her for rescuing them.

The note said the owners have repaired the fence and added name tags to the dogs' collars as well, she said.

"I'm sharing this post in hopes that may somehow the couple may see the gratitude of the owners," Joann said.

And to that couple, she said: "If you two do see this please stop back in ... you deserve this bottle of wine !!!"

NOTE: If you're the dogs' owner and would like to add to this story, or the couple who helped keep them out of harm's way, please contact me at karen.wall@patch.com.