Oprah dedicates show to her late dog, Sophie

"Sophie gave me 13 years of unconditional love. She was a true love in my life," says Oprah.

Great timing on this story, because about a two weeks ago I was driving behind this huge BMV early in the morning down a long country road, and the entire rear window had a "Lost Dog" advertisement on the back instructing anyone who encountered this dog named "Henry" to call the police (number was posted) or to contact the owner. I thought to myself, d*&^^ covering up an entire window, what ever happened to the lost and found section in the newspaper. So we have to drive about 5 minutes down this road to get to the next traffic light, and the light on a pole on the driver side I noticed this enormous "Lost Dog" poster and who do I see...the yellow labs picture, Henry. The possible owner was in front of me at the stop light.

Fast forward ahead. Two days ago, someone reading the local section of the Boston Globe newspaper asked me, with an expression of total disbelief on her face- "Did you see this story about this dog?" I did not even see the story, but before I looked at the article, I said, "Is it about a dog named Henry?" I was just taking a wild guess. She said, "YES. $300 DOLLARS AN HOUR?!." So I grabbed the paper to see what she was talking about, and it was about that owner and the lost dog Henry on the main page on the local section.

Apparently, they paid for $300/hr helicopter to search for that dog, offered a $5000 reward, enlisted the help of others to perform searches, only later to find out the dog was on their premises all that time. It had drowned in a pool behind their home. The dog had become famous, as everyone was out looking for him. It was a sad ending, but an interesting sidenote to the story is how technology has enabled people to organize searches and seek the aide of others (including total strangers) to help them find lost animals. This includes text message alerts, creating websites, etc.

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I don't know about Henry or the owner's relationship with the dog, putting aside the stories above, it seems as if so many pets are over socialized to a point that they don't know they are not humans. It is not their fault, as people insist upon treating them as if they are humans. We had an elderly neighbor back in the early 90s who called her dog "daughter." The dog had its own bedroom in the house and whenever it misbehaved, she'd yell at the dog, "Shut up! Go to your room!" It threw me for a loop the first time I heard it.

Reference:

www.missinghenry.com
Winfrey dedicates show to her late dog