Saturday, March 24, 2007

This is the sweetest story!

Long-lost Lab brothers find each other at Wisconsin dog daycare.
By ANNE JUNGEN La Crosse Tribune

Wallace and Gromit were abandoned.

While at the Coulee Region Humane Society, all the identical yellow Labrador retriever brothers had was each other.

Then, when 5 months old, each went off to separate homes last June.

Jump forward to this month.

The owner of Diggity Dog Daycare in the Airport Industrial Park noticed two yellow Labs would “play like crazy” whenever they got together.

“They love playing chase, ring around the picnic table and face wrestling on the couches,” said Pat Kucera.

He mentioned the dogs’ unusual fondness for each another to their respective families.

It made Cyndy Lamb think. She never forgot about the other Lab who had been with her Cooper when she took him home from the Humane Society.

So Lamb pressed Denice Mack, who had the other Lab, for information about her Levi.

“I asked her where she got him,” Lamb said. “When she said he was 5 months old when she got him, my heart stopped.”

Cooper, too, had been 5 months when she adopted him.

The two are convinced Levi and Cooper are the former Wallace and Gromit that had been at the Humane Society last June.

“I was so excited because when we adopted (Levi), we knew there was another yellow Lab out there, and we wanted to find him and get together with him,” Mack said.

That the brothers would end up at the same facility months later, “I find it amazing. I mean, think of the odds of that,” Kucera said.

The humans now are hoping the dog brothers will connect outside Diggity Dog Daycare — Denise and husband Curt have extended a “play date” invitation to Cooper and Lamb.

“I’m definitely going to take them up on that,” Lamb said.