Fliers yield a happy ending for the girls, who have had to say goodbye to two other pets since Mother's Day.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published October 24, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Bandit, the beloved pet of two little girls, is back home.
Last week, Courtney Bush, 7, and her sister Kaitlyn, 4, joyfully reunited with the dog that had been missing for three endless days.
"I'm very, very happy. I missed him and he missed me 1,000 percent," said Courtney, who is learning percentages in school.
"We were looking for him every day," Kaitlyn said. "We love Bandit."
When Bandit, a shiba inu, disappeared from their front yard last Sunday afternoon, it marked the third time in five months that the girls were forced to face the loss of a family pet. Their Doberman died shortly after Mother's Day. Within weeks, their Rottweiler was diagnosed with cancer and had to be euthanized. Desperate to recover Bandit, the family plastered fliers along streets near their home. They took out a newspaper ad and contacted Neighborhood Times. Wednesday they learned their efforts had yielded success. Bradley Yager, 16, had found Bandit.
The St. Petersburg High School student had been skateboarding with his friend, Stephen Craven, on Ninth Avenue N on Sunday, when he saw the dog running across the road from the main library.
"It almost got hit. I ran and got him. He didn't have a collar on, so we took him to my house so we could keep him until someone started looking for him," Bradley said during a telephone interview Thursday.
He spotted a flier Wednesday. It was with mixed feelings that he watched Bandit reunite with his two young owners.
"It made me feel glad but sad," Bradley said.
"My little brother didn't want him to go either. He cried as they were walking out," he said of his 18-month-old brother, Dakota.
"They got attached to him," the boy's mother, Laurie Weinbrecher, said.
"He was a good dog, really smart, too."
Courtney and Kaitlyn's reunion with Bandit was joyous, she said.
"When they came, they were just hugging him and hugging him. The mom was excited too. I'm so glad they got their dog back," she said.
Now her children want a dog more than ever, Mrs. Weinbrecher said, but her husband is worried one would damage their hardwood floors.
For now, Bradley must be content with his ball python and tropical bird, a half moon conure. And there's the new skateboard he bought with the $100 reward he got for finding Bandit.
