Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

I JUST (7:45AM) GOT AN TEXT MESSAGE FROM TOM THAT HE WAS FOUND!!

I HAVE NO DETAILS, BUT SURE HE WILL FILL EVERYONE IN AND THANK EVERYONE FOR THEIR KIND SUPPORT.

I WOULD GIVE TOM A DAY TO CATCH UP ON SLEEP, FOOD, WORK, ETC BEFORE CALLING  OR EMAILING HIM. WHEN I TALKED TO HIM LAST NIGHT HE SOUNDED ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED!

COMING BACK FROM A 24 HOUR RACE, THEN STAYING UP FOR 2 DAYS TRYING TO FIND HIM, I AM SURE HIM AND VITO ARE GOING TO SLEEP FOR A WHILE!!!

WONDERFUL NEWS, TOM! :D

that's great news!! i am glad to hear that he is home safe and sound. - J

awesome!

Whew!  That is great to hear!!   :)

That's great to hear!  I hope everyone is resting well!

Thanks everyone. I am very tired. So is Vito. I am looking forward to sleeping next to him. Here are the details that I posted on the other post:

We got him back. I am so happy. I felt empty. Thanks to all who offered to help out. We were pretty much falling apart trying to find him. He is dirty and tired but safe.

The girl who found him said she watches dog wisperer all the time, and new how to get him to calm down. At first he ran from her, but she did what they said to do on the show and was able to read his collar. She kwew when she saw him that he was lost. She called me at 7am just as I was heading out to look for him again.

He made it from 2nd and Phillip all the way to 20th and Spring Garden, behind a Star Bucks. He was heading Northwest which is the direction of home. He was almost to Fairmount Park.

I am so Happy

That's great news Tom!  I saw the email you sent out last night and couldn't believe it.  I'm happy he is back.

yay! so glad to hear he's safe!

Outstanding, glad to hear he is home and safe.

Tom, that's fantastic news.  As a fellow dog lover, my heart dropped reading your post of him being lost.  Wow, what a nice person that found him, taking extra effort in capturing him for you.

Do what my wife did to me, put a GPS tracker chip in him!

How much did his tail wag when he saw you?

If you ever need someone to look after him overnight, I have a fenced in back yard, and would be glad to do it!

Tom, thats great news. Awesome of her to catch him. calm him down and get the tag info. Glad there are still good people out there.

Impressive that he cut all the way across the city, thats pretty far and through center city even. Sounds like he was really heading home.

Yeah seriously, he was almost half way home and past most of the really confusing stuff (south and center city).....

Yeah, Tom, there were several offers for dog sitting already, but I'll extend one more. No need to take him into nasty sitty dvelling, we have planty of PMBA people around Roxy and Mt. Airy with big yards to sit if needed.

So next time just ask here.

Maybe we need a dog-sitting forum, to establish dog-sitting-coop to trade the favors.  ;)

dz

Yeah, I'm sure he was thinking "this area sucks! where are the damn trails!"

Tom, all for that matter,
This is great. Been thinking of Vito since i rec'd your email.

Add me to the pool of would-be sitters. 3 dogs, 4 dogs, what's the difference :-)

Happy endings are good!

I would love to findsome to dogsit, and would do the same if the dog can get along with my other two!!!

Wow this is an amazing story! Great stuff. Take that poor dog riding! You know he wants to run the Wiss!!!!!!!!  After some R&R of course...

Nice happy ending!

Thanks everyone. I am so proud of him for surviving in the conditions that he dealt with. He even made it past center city and the Vine st expressway and was B-lining right for home. He must have been under a lot of cars cause was very greasy.

I'm truly touched by all the support I received from my fellow riders. It means more than you can imagine.  A true testiment to our common bond. Thanks!

Awesome Tom.. glad he was found.   I was thinking when I read the email that Vito's internal GPS would steer him to the Wiss and once he got there he'd know his way home... sounds like he was headed that way.   He probably has some good stories to tell.....     So glad to hear he's home. 

I don't blame him.  I wouldn't like to stay in deep south philly either.   

He is very lucky though.

Very Happy for you Tom, Kelly and of course VITO!! great story, Vito the PMBA mascot. Get a good picture of him smiling on the website!!!..that girl who found him has made many people happy

That's awesome, glad to hear it ended well.  I was thinking he would try to find the woods, he was more than half way!

Wow Tom, that's so good to hear, I was thinking of leaving work early today to help look for him.  Years ago my cat wandered off and i was up literally all night looking for her, I found her at ~7 am when a woman down teh street opened her garage door, she had wandered in the garage to check it out.   I was wondering if Vito had been taken in my a person or what not.

Nate

That's awesome you got Vito back! I feel for you man, if I lost my dog I would be totally beside myself. We have him chipped now just in case of such things happening. But in all it's really good to know there's still some decent people out there. 

It was great to see him tonight. He was definitely wore out but he was his same old cool self. He is an amazing dog, I must say. And I'm a cat person but I am totally amazed by Vito... 

So glad to hear it Tom!

Thanks everyone that stopped by to see him. It was very cool.

I want to say special thanks to Jamie, Jeremy, Annette and Krotee who dropped what they were doing and came to search (Krotee and Annette did not have bikes so they drove around!) the streets with Kelly and I. Some of it was not pleasant, and these guys never flinched. Wanted everyone to know what a class act these guys are. Thanks.

Tom, that's awesome!  I'm so glad you found him.  I can imagine how you must have felt.  If it were my dog, I would have been a complete wreck.

Hey, and since we're throwing out dog sitter offers...I have a big fenced-in yard and would gladly dog sit Vito or anyone else's dog provided that they got along with mine ok :)

Woo HOO!!

Four paw's and two wheels together again!

K

Thanks Paula!

Many times as I was riding around and dodging cars checking highway ramps for his body, I would lose composure; I'd have to stop and lean against my bike. A mess. I had to dig deep and continue on. It was much easier when Jamie and Jeremy were riding with me. It gave me strength.

Shady hoods, piles of garbage, grease pits behind shopping centers and riding through bums living rooms under overpasses. Some homeless people are very territorial. We got to see a different side of the city. The side you don't want to see. Vito survived it. I'm proud of him.

Hi Everyone;

Sorry it took so long for me to write something; yesterday felt like it was dream... and I felt as if any moment I was going to wake up and be put back into our nightmare of not having Vito (fortunately it was not a dream and Vito is here with us).  Vito is doing awesome & after an entire day of R & R is acting much more like himself (although he is having nightmares of being lost he cries...and moves his legs like he is still lost it is very sad)... I just wished that he was wearing a helmet cam so we could see where he traveled (although I am kind of grateful that I don't have to know).

Anyway I wanted to truly thank everyone who came to our side during this difficult time.  Friends who traveled in the worse part of the city with us... who looked on websites when we were out looking... and who looked besides us... and who called and tried to keep us positive.  I also want to thank everyone who was going to go into the city last night & help us track down our lost pet. Tom & I (and Vito) are very fortunate to have some many amazingly unselfish people in our community that were willing to help us find our Vito. 

Thank you everyone.