The town’s search

The Berman Family, Pennington
    On a terrible snowy, windy morning on Oct. 28, 2008 our family was moving into our new home in Pennington. The door into our garage blew open and our Airedale Zoey ran away. We immediately went out searching as well as alerting the animal control officer, Belinda Ogitis, and the police department. We got word that Zoey was seen on Delaware Avenue close to where it meets with Federal City Road and that she had been hit by a car. It is my understanding that all traffic stopped and several people tried to get her to come but she ran off. Some of those kind people actually chased after her.
   Since we are new to the area and she was in unfamiliar territory on a terrible day where scent would be very difficult we did not have any luck in finding her. The next day we went out with fliers. This was our very first day in town and our family could not believe the kindness of all of the people in the area. People at the local stores not only put up our fliers, but made copies to pass out. Parents at the local schools sent out an infinite amount of e-mails to the families in the schools. We received hundreds of telephone calls and e-mails offering help to go out to search for Zoey. Before long it seemed like our search for Zoey became the town’s search
   We would like to send out some very special thanks. To Ms. Ogitis, the animal control officer of Hopewell/Pennington — Our family will be forever grateful to you for all of your time and friendship. You do your job and you do it so very well. You will always have a very special place in our family. To the local police officers who all stopped me to ask if our other Airedale Cooper was Zoey. Each one stopped to tell me how they knew and that they were all looking out for her. To Jamie, for her time and determination. She called and used every possible resource she could to help our family. To Nancy, who spent her lunch hours driving around in her car to search. To Judy, who has e-mailed me several times a week with all kinds of wonderful tips and for going out on walks just to look. A special thank you to all the school children who stopped to tell me that they were looking for Zoey and put up posters all over their schools. It was such a great comfort to know that so many people were out there keeping an eye out for her.
   Our family wishes so very hard for Zoey’s return. We have held off writing this in hopes that we would have a happy ending to tell everyone in town. We are sorry to say that we are at a complete loss as to where she is. We are all so very grateful for all of the kindness of our new neighbors in this wonderful town. We met many of you very quickly while out searching and hope to get to know more of our new neighbors under better circumstances. This town is not only a people-friendly community; it is also truly a dog-friendly community.
   From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to all. Our family wishes each and everyone of you a wonderful, happy and healthy new year.