A Louisiana family visiting relatives in Akron witnessed what they’re calling a Christmas Eve miracle with the help of Akron police.
Susanne and Michael Romig, of Brusly, La., said police “went above and beyond their duty” to find two of their dogs that ran off in the middle of the night.
Susanne Romig said the ordeal started Wednesday evening, when their dogs — 11-year-old Sweetie and 2-year-old Ellie — got out without anyone noticing.
“I don’t know if the door was left open or what, but they got out and we didn’t notice they were missing for about an hour,” she said. “When we finally noticed, it was just about when it started raining.”
Romig said the family searched for a while before panic began to set in.
“We knew they were totally lost,” she said. “If they were going to find their way back, it was going to be totally on their instincts. They had no idea where they were — we didn’t really take them out much around here.”
While family members searched in vehicles and others scoured nearby woods in the pouring rain, someone got the idea to ask police for help.
“We searched and searched and searched and came up with nothing,” she said. “We were running out of hope.”
Once 3 a.m. came around, the family decided to postpone the search until daylight. But an hour later, they received a call from police.
“At about 4 o’clock, a policeman called to say they had gotten a call from someone about three blocks away that some dogs were barking outside,” Romig said. “They went outside and found our oldest dog, Sweetie, was in a pond and couldn’t get out — she has a bad hip — and the younger dog, Ellie, was barking and trying to get her out.”
Romig said she felt like a weight had been lifted.
“You hear so many people dogging the cops these days,” she said, “but these weren’t cops — they were police officers, and they deserve to be recognized.”
Romig’s husband commended the police and said it was the greatest of Christmas gifts to know his dogs were safe. About four cruisers and six officers were on the scene, the couple said.
“When we called the police department, we never really expected them to find our dogs,” he said. “You never expect that.”
He said police were holding the younger dog in a fenced area while they attempted to warm up and dry the older dog. When a police dog arrived on the scene, though, the younger dog panicked and ran away again — but this time, it returned home instead of running off.
Romig said he was astounded by the work the police put into rescuing the dogs.
“When we got there, they had wiped her off and the lead officer had Sweetie on a leash,” he said. “He just told us to take her home and keep her warm. They were so magnificent.”
His wife agreed.
“They were so kind.”
He said he never expected a call about missing dogs to be taken so seriously.
“I just can’t say enough about them, to take care of people from out of town,” Romig said. “They have a lot of important things to do, and they treated us as if it was a serious case, and we want to thank them for that.
“If it wasn’t for the police, I don’t think our dogs would be safe. We had given up hope.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ.