{"id":6148,"date":"2015-04-09T06:38:03","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T12:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=6148"},"modified":"2015-04-09T06:43:11","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T12:43:11","slug":"one-dog-gone-one-saved-two-owners-share-frustration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/04\/one-dog-gone-one-saved-two-owners-share-frustration\/","title":{"rendered":"One dog gone, one saved, two owners share frustration"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6149\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-6149 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mac-and-daughter-771x507.jpg\" alt=\"Lexie\" width=\"771\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mac-and-daughter.jpg 771w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mac-and-daughter-336x221.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">In better days, Lexie, one of Cassie Dennison&#8217;s five daughters, plays with Mac, the family&#8217;s black lab. Mac was put down by the county in early December.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Critics of the animal control division of the Yellowstone County Sheriff\u2019s Office (see <a href=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/2015\/04\/critics-fed-up-with-countys-very-broken-animal-control-division\/\">the top story<\/a> on Last Best News) say the disorganization and sloppiness there are partly to blame for some dogs being killed unnecessarily and other dogs being adopted out rather than returned to their owners.<\/p>\n<p>Just ask Cassie Dennison. Her family\u2019s 8-year-old purebred black Lab went missing on Nov. 26, the day before last Thanksgiving.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Dennison said Mac bolted when Cassie\u2019s nanny let him out of their house near Shepherd. He was wearing a camo collar but no tags. Dennison was working that day and on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and her husband and nanny called the county and various shelters.<\/p>\n<p>Dennison said she doesn\u2019t have a record of when calls were made, but she knows the county was called at least twice before Dec. 8 and they weree told that no dog matching Mac\u2019s description had been picked up in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>She remembers Dec. 8 because that was the day someone on the Lost\/Found Pets of Billings MT Facebook page advised her to check with Fleming, whom she had never heard of before. She spoke with him on Dec. 9, and though Fleming disputes this, Dennison said he first told her that he had picked Mac up himself at the intersection of two roads in Shepherd, which Dennison said was basically the end of her driveway.<\/p>\n<p>She said Fleming told her he didn\u2019t know what had happened to her dog since then.<br \/>\nShe said Fleming told her, \u201cHe was either euthanized or adopted out.\u201d When she pressed him for more details, she said, he answered, \u201cI just don\u2019t know. My book\u2019s not in front of me.\u201d He said he\u2019d call her back the next day, after he reviewed his report.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>When he failed to call back, Dennison called him late the next day, Dec. 10, and this time, she said, he had a completely different story.<\/p>\n<p>He said someone else, an unidentified person, had brought her dog to the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter on Nov. 26. YVAS is a private agency that contracts with the city of Billings to handle stray and lost dogs and cats.<\/p>\n<p>He said he was called later that same day, Nov. 26, to pick the Lab up because the YVAS said he was unadoptable. Fleming said he took the dog to the Big Sky Pet Center.<\/p>\n<p>Dennison said they talked for quite a while before Fleming, who had previously said he didn\u2019t know what happened to Mac, said her dog had been euthanized. Pressed again for details, he said he was just reading from his records, and either a veterinarian or a \u201ccounty official\u201d had put Mac down on Dec. 2.<\/p>\n<p>Dennison said she had already made calls to several agencies and vet clinics, trying to find out if any effort had been made to find a new owner for Mac. She asked Fleming for a statement saying he had tried to adopt Mac out, but he refused.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, when she asked to see his records, she said, Fleming shouted at her, \u201cWho do you think fed your dog for six days?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dennison admits she became very angry and as their conversation grew more heated, he said to her, \u201cYour dog is dead! Your dog is dead! Your digging (for information) isn\u2019t going to bring him back.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6150\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-6150 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cassie-Ellen2-1-of-1-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Paperwork\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cassie-Ellen2-1-of-1.jpg 771w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cassie-Ellen2-1-of-1-336x224.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cassie Dennison, left, and Ellen Quinn, a volunteer with the Rimrock Humane Society, look over paperwork regarding the death of Dennison&#8217;s dog, Mac.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Earlier this year, Dennison said she still hadn\u2019t heard exactly how Mac was killed or what happened to his remains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think he had the decency to euthanize him,\u201d she said, referring to Fleming. \u201cI feel like he just shot him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jenny Michaelson had better luck than Dennison. Michaelson lives just west of the city limits off Grand Avenue. She acknowledged that Nacho, her golden retriever, was not wearing a collar or tags the day it ran off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFull responsibility,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Nacho is 12 years old and is a strong-willed dog. He\u2019d gotten out before by digging under the fence behind her kids\u2019 playhouse. When he does get out, he generally stays close to home, Michaelson said, but \u201cif his nose is down, all bets are off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her dog disappeared on Thursday, Oct. 16. Hoping he\u2019d return, she didn\u2019t call the sheriff\u2019s office until Friday the 17th. She called the non-emergency number and was transferred to someone in the sheriff\u2019s office, who told her there was no record of animal control having picked up a golden retriever.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6153\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-6153 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jenny-Nacho2-1-of-1.jpg\" alt=\"At home\" width=\"336\" height=\"417\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jenny Michaelson and Nacho, safe at home.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>She got the same answer that evening and again Saturday morning, so she started calling West End veterinary centers, including Big Sky Pet Center, where Nacho had been taken once before. She said the person who answered the phone at Big Sky told her, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you anything. You need to go through the sheriff\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michaelson called the sheriff\u2019s office again Saturday night and Sunday morning, and on Saturday she placed a lost-dog ad in the Gazette, which ran Tuesday. She also put a notice on Craigslist and checked the Billings Lost and Found Facebook site.<\/p>\n<p>After the ad ran in the paper on Tuesday, she got a call at dinnertime from Sandy Church, with the Rimrock Humane Society, who said they had Nacho. Church said one of her volunteers had seen Nacho at Big Sky Pet Center and, figuring he was someone\u2019s pet, offered to take him. The Humane Society then put a notice online saying they had an older golden retriever. Someone who had seen that notice alerted Church to Michaelson\u2019s ad in the Gazette.<\/p>\n<p>Church told Michaelson she was surprised Nacho was still alive, since he\u2019d been picked up by animal control five days earlier.<\/p>\n<p>When she got home with her dog, Michaelson said, \u201cI was so mad.\u201d Now she knew that the county had her dog and held him for five days, but no one at the sheriff\u2019s department could tell her they were holding a dog that fit Nacho\u2019s description, and Big Sky Pet Center would tell her nothing.<\/p>\n<p>With her dog back home, Michaelson called the sheriff\u2019s office one more time and asked a receptionist if she was positive no dog fitting Nacho\u2019s description had been brought in. She said, \u201cNo. I have no knowledge of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michaelson said she can\u2019t figure out why the county not only made no effort to find Nacho\u2019s owner, but seemed to resist her efforts to bring him home. She wonders why the county couldn\u2019t maintain a simple website listing found dogs, with photos and descriptions. Cost must not be a problem, since she was never charged for the five days Nacho spent at Big Sky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, Nacho\u2019s little five-day stint would have paid for a website,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>If the county is going to pick up animals, she said, \u201cyou have to go that extra step and try to get them home. They have to log everything anyway. What\u2019s pushing one more button?\u201d\u2014a reference to her suggestion that the county maintain a lost-and-found page on its website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Critics of the animal control division of the Yellowstone County Sheriff\u2019s Office (see the top story on Last Best News) say the disorganization and sloppiness there are partly to blame for some dogs being killed unnecessarily and other dogs being adopted out rather than returned to their owners. Just ask Cassie Dennison. Her family\u2019s 8-year-old [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[2338,2335,2336,2329,2327,2337],"class_list":["post-6148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-news","tag-big-sky-pet-center","tag-cassie-dennison","tag-jenny-michaelson","tag-john-fleming","tag-yellowstone-county-sheriffs-office","tag-yellowstone-valley-animal-shelter","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}