'It Was The Only Thing To Do:' Police Officer Drives 650 Miles To Take Dog Home

WALL, NJ — When Wall Township Patrolman Frank Kuhl promised a man he would make sure he and his family got their dog back, he never imagined the lengths he would have to go to fulfill that promise.

Or the miles, for that matter.

"It seemed like the right thing to do, the only thing to do," Kuhl said this week, after making a 1,300-mile journey to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and back, to deliver a basset hound named Bella to family members.

"I have two dogs at home, a German shepherd, Koda, he was a therapy dog, and a 9-year-old black lab, Rutgers — he was a rescue," Kuhl said. "In my house, my dogs are like my family."

The journey began when Kuhl and Patrolman Michael Tancredi responded to a call on July 15 for a motorist in need of assistance at the Allaire Corporate Center on Route 138.

There they encountered a man whose vehicle was inoperable; the man also was in need of medical assistance, Kuhl said. The 34-year-old man, who had come to New Jersey from Myrtle Beach looking for work, needed to go to the hospital.

But there was one problem: Bella.

"He couldn't take the dog to the hospital, obviously," Kuhl said.

So Kuhl told the man that the Monmouth County Humane Society would take Bella in temporarily until arrangements could be made to release her back to him and promised the man he would make sure Bella got back to his family, he said.

That's when things hit a snag. At the Humane Society, there's no room for them to provide temporary shelter for an animal in such circumstances; the number of animals needing homes precludes that. At most, Kuhl said, they will hold an animal for seven days, after which it goes up for adoption.

Kuhl said he then contacted the man's mother, who is Bella's co-owner. She had no way to get to New Jersey to retrieve Bella, he said. And because it was not known how long it would be before the man would be well enough to retrieve Bella himself, Kuhl realized there was a real danger that the dog would not go home with her family if she stayed at the shelter.

The mother was distraught, Kuhl said.

"Bella was a rescue from Colombia," and the man and his mother had had her for a few years; she'd even given birth to a litter of puppies, and they'd kept a couple of the puppies, then gotten Bella spayed. It was clear they were very attached to her, he said.

"This pulled on my heartstrings. It was clear that Bella was loved and well taken care of," he said. "It was heartbreaking that these people wouldn't be able to get their dog back just because they were in a bad position."

So Kuhl enlisted the help of his family, including wife Denise, daughter Olivia and son Michael, and sought permission to temporarily foster Bella until he could make arrangements to get her home to Myrtle Beach. Veronica Ehrenspeck, the humane society's general manager, helped facilitate the arrangements so Bella could stay with him and his family, Kuhl said.

Once Bella came to stay, it went very smoothly, he said. All three dogs got along well, and bonded even during the short time.

"Koda's 12, and he has good days and bad days," Kuhl said. During Bella's visit, Koda had one of his bad days.
"It must have been the mother in Bella because she just went and laid down quietly beside him," he said, "and then Rutgers went over and laid by them both."

"It was sweet and sad all at the same time," he said.

Bella stayed with the Kuhls for 11 days, until Kuhl and Tancredi, who heard about Kuhl's plan and volunteered to help, could drive Bella down to Myrtle Beach.

On Aug. 4, Kuhl and Tancredi hit the road for the 1,300-mile round trip to get Bella home. They arrived in Myrtle Beach later that day and delivered Bella to her owner.

"She was ecstatic," Kuhl said. "She was so happy to have Bella back, and thanked us over and over."

Kuhl admits he and his family were a little sad to see her go.

"She was such a sweet dog," Kuhl said. His daughter had a hard time saying goodbye, Kuhl said, "because Bella had such bad separation anxiety that she slept with Olivia" during her stay. And Kuhl said Rutgers, too, "was definitely mopey, my wife said."

"It's amazing how much they (the dogs) care about each other," he said.

It was a long drive, but Kuhl said it was the only right answer to the situation, in his mind.

"I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if her family hadn't gotten her back," Kuhl said.

Wall Patrolman Frank Kuhl poses with Bella during a rest stop on the drive to Myrtle Beach, SC, last week. Photo by Wall Patrolman Michael Tancredi