SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Here's a story that will brighten your day and perhaps even restore your faith in humanity. It's about how an unhoused man rescued a lost dog and gave him a little extra TLC—or tender loving care—until that dog was reunited with its owner.
And when that man was offered a little money for his trouble, he turned it down.
Now, the dog owner wants to find that Good Samaritan to say thank you.
Bob Eicholz of San Francisco walks his two whippets Wardy and Taylor often. Wherever the dogs go, they have a GPS tracker on them.
But last Saturday, the dogs were staying with a pet sitter and Wardy got loose.
“He escaped from our pet sitter's hose. Wasn't her fault. He jumped over the fence. Got out,” said Eicholz.
And boy, did Wardy take off-like a whippet.
“They're very skiddish. They're extremely fast. They can run over 30 miles an hour,” said Eicholz.
“10 minutes later, a lady captured him. But she grabbed the collars, and he backed out and she kept the collars and he ran off. So now, he is in urban San Francisco with no collars. No ID of any kind,” said Eicholz.
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Wardy's GPS tracker came off with one of those collars. He was missing for two days. Eicholz posted missing dog flyers all over the city and shared the information online.
“There were probably at one point 50 people helping me find him,” said Eicholz.
With the help of strangers, Eicholz kept tabs on where Wardy was spotted.
“He runs all over the Mission District, crosses Market Street; he goes to Hayes Valley,” said Eicholz.
Wardy ended up in the Tenderloin. Eicholz said a homeless man found the dog at a park off Eddy Street.
“The homeless man bought him a little crate, a blanket, a pad, food, dog toys and kept him for two days. This is man who has nothing, and lives in this park. And took care of our little boy,” said Eicholz. “Just makes me think you don't realize how many kind people are out there until something like his happens.
Soon after Wardy went missing, another dog walker actually spotted him.
“I notice he had no owner; no collar and he took down the street,” said Monique Lee.
Monique Lee posted about it online and two days later got a call from a different dog walker who saw Wardy and a man at a bus stop.
That dogwalker approached the man and Wardy three days after the dog went missing.
“The man had Wardy in a little crate and blanket, and he was giving him love and care. you can tell Wardy was content with him,” said Lee.
“That's him asleep in the crate,” said Eicholz.
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The woman showed the man the missing posters and explained that Wardy had run away. The man handed over the dog.
“That's when he said, ‘Here, take the dog. You have to take the blanket. He loves this blanket',” said Eicholz.
Wardy is home again.
As for Eicholz, he wants to find the kind-hearted man who gave Wardy so much.
“I'd love to know more about this man,” said Eicholz. “We're looking for him. I'd like to say ‘thank you.' I'd like to give him a little more money or buy him something he needs –just the kindness of someone to do something like that when I'm sure he has a lot of other things on his mind.”
Eicholz has these words for the man.
“That was incredibly kind of you to do that. You didn't have to do that. It touches my heart deeply that you took care him. Not only food but you also bought him a place to stay. Thank you,” said Eicholz.
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