Here’s a great way to make some Christmas money AND make this family happy — find Tug! I hope he gets home soon!
Thanks to the Chicago Sun-Times for this article.
$5,000 reward offered for missing show dog
Tug managed to get through 2 doorsDecember 12, 2007
BY BEN GOLDBERGER Staff ReporterThe anxious owners of a champion Newfoundland show dog that disappeared from a River North office last week are offering a $5,000 reward for the dog’s safe return.
Tug, a 125-pound “big lug” with thick black hair, a white chest and four white paws, somehow got through two doors Friday afternoon to escape from his new owner’s ground-floor office in the 900 block of North Franklin.
Johnny, a 2-year-old purebred champion Newfoundland show dog, disappeared from a River North office Friday. The owner is offering a $5,000 reward for his safe return.
(Courtesy)
“He opened up our inner office door either with his foot or his mouth and he opened the steel door that leads to the street with his body,” said his owner, Tracy Hickman. “I just can’t believe he figured a way to get out of two doors. I still can’t figure out how he did it.”Hickman believes Tug wasn’t stolen because a valet parking employee from a nearby restaurant saw the dog running alone down Franklin shortly after he disappeared.
Hickman, her boyfriend Chad Munger and a team of friends have been searching for Tug since Friday, scouring shelters and vets and following leads throughout River North, Old Town and West Town. They’ve been flooded with reported sightings since posting nearly 2,500 flyers around the city.
“We desperately want him back and will do everything we can to find him,” Hickman said.
Tug, who might also respond to his former name “Johnny,” has an implanted identification microchip that can be scanned, but he has no ID tags. Hickman and Munger just bought the dog from a Cleveland-area breeder Dec. 1. He had spent the first two years of his life as a competitive show dog named Johnny B. Good and has the pedigree to sell for as much as $3,000, Hickman said.
Tug was last sighted Tuesday morning near Cambridge and Locust by Cabrini Green — an area that Hickman says is thick with searchers attracted by the sizeable reward.
