We got a call two days ago from a local veterinary clinic. They told us that a Good Samaritan had found a dog and brought it to the clinic because its vaccination tags were from their office. They had tried to call the owner of "Rocky", but his number was disconnected. The only other information they had was from us, as the PPOM program had paid for vaccinations for the dog in 2008. We began to do some research and found that the dog had belonged to a patient of ours, who had passed away several months ago. We tried to call the numbers we had for the patient's spouse, to no avail. All the numbers we had were disconnected, too. After checking the patient's chart, we found the number of another relative and we called her. She was very excited to hear from us. She told us that the person we were looking for, her uncle, had been placed in a nursing home. A cousin and her husband had moved into the family home and changed the phone to their name. They had also adopted the family dog and had been searching desperately for him since a thunderstorm four days previously. She gave us the number and we called her cousin to tell her where "Rocky" was waiting. She began to cry. "I love that dog so much!" she said. "He is all I have left of my mother. She loved him, too." She thanked us through her tears for being so persistant. We thanked her for letting us be a part of a happy ending for her and "Rocky."
