Small Dog Center of Big Dispute

A chihuahua is at the center of a dispute between an Easley family and Easley City Councilman Dave Watson and his wife, Trish.

Kerri Blanton said that her dog went missing on Mother’s Day weekend. Blanton and her family had left Lucy in the care of a friend while on vacation and Lucy slipped through a hole in the privacy fence of the friend’s home on Blue Ridge Street.

Upon returning home, Blanton and her family looked for Lucy for several hours in the rain, then returned the next day and canvassed the neighborhood.

But the family saw no sign of Lucy until Saturday. One of Blanton’s sons said he saw a dog that looked like Lucy at Easley Responsible Dog Ownership Day.

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“We made flyers and hung them all around, took them to all the local vets,” Blanton said. “We contacted the Humane Society, put ads on CraigsList and Facebook, trying to reach out and do what we could.”

Blanton said she believed someone had picked the dog up. After talking with her son, Blanton saw a newspaper ad for the ERDOD event and, to her surprise, saw what she believed to be Lucy in the ad.  

“She was the poster child for Responsible Dog Ownership Day,” Blanton said.

An Internet search brought up an Easley Patch article, with pictures of the same dog.

“Much to my surprise, there was my dog at an Easley City Council meeting,” Blanton said. “I thought, ‘This is unbelievable.’ She has very distinct markings, her coloring is very distinct.”

Blanton said she contacted Dave Watson, whom she said became very irate over the phone, telling her he’d had the dog in the photos for more than a year, and eventually hanging up on her.

Trish Watson called her back a few minutes later, Blanton said.

“She said, ‘We want to do the right thing,” Blanton said.

Trish Watson said the dog is part of their family now.

Blanton said Trish Watson offered to buy the family a new dog.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re attached to the dog,” Blanton said. “I told her that I can sympathize with you about emotional attachment.”

Blanton says that the Watsons offered to return the dog, but asked to be compensated for caring for the dog since Mother’s Day, including veterinary bills, food, leashes, collars and other items.

“I said I would be comfortable paying reasonable fees like vet bills,” Blanton said.  “‘I don’t mind paying you for what she might have consumed, but let’s be reasonable.’”

Blanton said she talked the situation over with her family and they all wanted Lucy to come home.

Blanton said when she contacted the Watsons, again, the couple changed the amount they were asking for from $400 to $553.

A friend in law enforcement suggested the family file a police report, calling the matter “borderline extortion,” Blanton said.

Blanton filed a police report and filed a second report on Tuesday.

“I don’t want the man arrested,” Blanton said. “We don’t want to go out and bash the man. All we want is our dog returned.”

The matter has been turned over to the magistrate’s court, after a magistrate told Blanton there was enough evidence for a civil case.

The Blanton family has filed a civil action against Dave and Trish Watson. 

Blanton said she just wants the Watsons to do “what’s morally correct.” She said she feels they didn’t make an effort to find the dog’s previous owners.

“They had no intention of returning the dog to us,” Blanton said.

But that’s an accusation Trish Watson vigorously denies.

Trish Watson said the dog she calls Gracie turned up at their house on Mother’s Day.

“I went out on my porch and Gracie was in a chair shivering,” she said.  “There was no tag on her.”

Trish Watson says she put a sign up at Casey’s Store, which is in her neighborhood, stating that she had found a dog. 

“We had the sign up at least two weeks,” Trish Watson said. 

The Watsons also took the dog to the vet and had it checked for a microchip.

She said no one contacted her about the dog, until recently when Gracie was brought to a city council meeting to promote Easley’s Responsible Dog Ownership Day.

Trish Watson said she put flyers up stating the dog had been found and also checked the newspapers for lost dog ads.

“They never put an ad in,” Trish Watson said. “I checked the paper every day.  We tried desperately to find her owners. What more can you do?”

She said she and her husband have made no secret that they had the dog.

“She goes everywhere with us,” Trish Watson said. “She goes to the Auction House, she goes to all the auctions. We’re not trying to hide anything. We just figured nobody cared about her. If I had had her, and I’d lost her, I’d be going door to door.”  

Trish Watson says the family should buy another dog.

“We’ve had her five months now,” Trish Watson said. “We took her in. She is our dog now. She is our baby. We did not find Gracie, Gracie found us.

“We did extreme due diligence to try and find the previous owners,” Trish Watson said. “In the state of South Carolina, a dog is a stray after three days. We’re not giving her up and I think the law is on our side. We’ve contacted an attorney — that’s how much she means to us.”