Dans Hamptons

Recently inducted to the Canadian Hall of Fame, songwriter Joni Mitchell once wrote, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what got till it’s gone?”

With this in mind, Chelsea Minnion easily felt that way after her five-month old, part beagle, part poodle, somehow disappeared from the family home in Southold. Chelsea knew something was wrong when she called out the dog’s name, Mac, and the playful friendly puppy did not reappear. The seventeen-year-old raced out into the cold January night with brother Shane to search all over for the loved dog, shouting out his name around corners through bushes and into the darkness.

They were not successful that night and the search continued the next day. Fliers were created with the little puppy’s cute face on them and were distributed all over nearby Southold, in places like the IGA and Polywoda Beverage, where Shane worked. The town embraced the dilemma of the young Minnion siblings and at times it seemed the whole town of Southold was searching for the lost puppy.

The puppy was an early Christmas gift for Chelsea and had won her heart as all puppies’ do. As each day passed things look grimmer. People in cars drove into dark alleys. Others on foot, kept looking here and about. Someone mentioned it seemed that almost the whole town of Southold had bonded in the search for the young puppy. All the vets in town were contacted as well as all authorities who might have information, but as time went by, the prognosis for success seemed negative. It was reported that Chelsea was somehow convinced that the dog had been taken because it would always come to the calling of its name. The young girl was tormented by the loss of the little soul and the joy and smiles it brought to her in the short time she was able to share with Mac. They even ran an ad on WLNG hoping the radio waves might find someone who had information about the missing dog.

However, eventually even Shane and Chelsea had lost hope.

But then, the miracle of the blanket effort manifested itself. On January 16, at about the same time that Mac had disappeared, around 8:30 p.m. but a week later, the phone rang at the Minnion home. The dog was up island in Lindenhurst. It seems a man, whose job located him in Southold, found the dog wondering about in the parking lot at Pagano’s. Fearing for the puppy’s safety he spirited the puppy home maybe saving its young life. He eventually saw one of the so many distributed fliers and called the attached phone number and the dog was returned.

Chelsea reportedly said, “I didn’t ask too many questions.” It was reported to Shane that as the truck carrying Mac pulled up into the Minnion’s driveway. The dog started to cry. Even Chelsea herself could not hold back tears. Mac was back in her loving arms licking her and looking into her eyes. “I had lost hope; it is a miracle he’s back. He came running to me and I was in awe,” she reportedly said. At Polywoda Beverage, the flier still is posted with the letters “FOUND” written boldly across it. There is magic in every puppy and the joy it brings. It seems that Mac was able to give Chelsea Minnion a magic joy she will tell her great grandchildren. Puppy’s do that. Yes, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you have till it’s gone?” But in this case, what was gone came back and a whole community is happy and perhaps a little bit more connected for it. The little heart of a puppy touched so many hearts in Southold and Mac’s safe return warmed many a heart, on the coldest week of the winter, so far out on the North Fork.