STOLEN DOG “BUCKAROO” BACK HOME

Buckaroo, the yellow Labrador dognapped last week from a cottage west of Ottawa, has been reunited with his owner after someone dropped him off at an animal shelter in Oakville, Ont.

The dog from the family farm last Thursday. Days later, Buckaroo’s owner, Peter Phillips, received a note accusing him of neglect and telling him to stop looking for his missing pet.

It was just such a sigh of relief that we actually found him.- Jordin Legate

“All the time that we’ve spent, like days and days looking for him in the woods thinking he’s missing, and then to get that note saying stop looking for him, I have him. It’s just, who would do something like that?” Phillips asked.

Phillips’s sister-in-law, Jordin Legate, said when they got word Buckaroo might be in Oakville, just west of Toronto, she was on the phone with the shelter right away.

“I called them first thing this morning and they told me they have a dog that matches Buckaroo’s description,” she said.

The shelter told Legate they’d had the dog since last Friday, the day after he disappeared from the cottage.

Legate drove to Oakville to get Buckaroo Thursday morning. She said the dog was in good health, but anxious.

“You can tell he was nervous being in the animal shelter. There are lots of other dogs and smells around, and lots of noises.”

Legate said police are following up with the animal shelter, but she doesn’t know if they’ve figured out who took the dog. She said they’re just happy to have Buckaroo back.

“It was just such a sigh of relief that we actually found him.”