Jake was with his new family only a few hours when he slipped out the apartment door and went missing for nine days, probably trying to find his way back to what he knew as home. A small white dog with only a royal blue collar (no tags yet), he gave the Township of Plainsboro a run for its money. A massive search effort by his new owners, Tory and Justin Gozzi, included Internet resources (Facebook, Craigslist, and the West Windsor/Plainsboro community website), a poster campaign, animal control and police notification in Princeton, Plainsboro, Cranbury, and West Windsor, and faxes/e-mails sent to all local vets, shelters, grocery stores, and pet shops.
Whenever Jake was spotted, the very dedicated police force would notify Tory, and she contacted a phone tree that slowly developed over the week, consisting of family and friends but also concerned animal lovers who didn’t even know the dog or the family. The first of these were two women, Mary and Melissa, who lived in a farmhouse Jake seemed to like to visit. Then added to that were Leslie, Fabien, Tommy, Jason, and so many others. By the end of the nine days, Jake was tracked all the way from CVS on Schalks Crossing Road to Stults Drive to High School North to Derry Meeting Drive to the farms off of Cranbury Neck Road to outside the police station on surveillance cameras on Dey Road! He was a very busy puppy!
Jake tended to appear in the early morning and late afternoon around dusk. He was tracked day and night, whenever there was a fresh lead. His sister Gracie, from the same litter, also owned by the family, was also on the case! At barely 10 pounds, Gracie was out in rain and sleet, trudging through woods and fields tracking Jake. At one point, she and “grandma” got within 10 feet of him, thanks to a group effort by the posse.
Midway through Jake’s adventure, the family happened on a woman named Liz who spoke of Bettina Roed, the former animal control officer of Plainsboro before the town outsourced the position to Helmetta. Liz raved about Bettina and said, “if anyone can find him, it would be Bettina!” (The family had already heard about this “wonder woman” from several other community members.) As soon as Liz called her, Bettina came every night on her own time to look for him and help set up traps in his most visited locations. She came every time there was a sighting with every piece of gear she might possibly need to help find and contain him safely.
When Jake was tracked to a new location on Palm Sunday, outside the normal four-mile circular loop he had developed over the week, Bettina set up a new trap, a sort of “Hail Mary Pass” and at 2 a.m. that morning, Jake was no longer on the run. Bettina brought him home. Finally.
Other than having to have a number of ticks taken off of him followed by a hearty bath, Jake was miraculously still healthy — just a little hungry and very tired from all of that running. He is now a member of a four-dog pack, loving every minute of it. He and Tory are attached at the hip — he follows her everywhere with a look of love that seems to say, “I’m back from my great adventure, and I will never leave you again.”
The family calls him its Easter miracle. The “lost sheep” returned, not only because of all of the loving prayers that were sent up to heaven over the course of those nine days, but also because of all of the loving efforts from community members — a wonderful display of the good that can still be seen in this world and the power of unconditional, selfless love. Thank you to all that helped bring him home safe and especially to Bettina.
Tory and Justin Gozzi
Plainsboro
Editor’s Note: Bettina Road was formerly animal control officer for West Windsor and Plainsboro under a shared services agreement between the two towns. In 2010 Plainsboro Committee voted to end its agreement with West Windsor in favor of one with Helmetta. West Windsor subsequently eliminated Roed’s position and entered a separate shared services agreement with East Windsor.
