FLORENCE:Dog on the run

By Birgitta Wolfe, Managing Editor
   FLORENCE — For an indoor dog, 3-year-old Maggie, a white 9-pound Shih Tzu, covered an awful lot of territory and dodged some serious traffic before her excellent adventure ended early Sunday morning.
   It started well enough on Thursday when owner Shauna Cattani of Sycamore Drive in Burlington Township took Maggie to Waggin Tails on Route 130 in Florence for a bath and a hair cut.
   Things went downhill from there.
   Ms. Cattani said a wet Maggie was ejected from the grooming center and put outside, charged with a bathroom violation. The small dog then was able to crawl under the fence and went missing.
   A major concern, in addition to the fact that the dog was gone, was the general location – Route 130, I-295 and the turnpike — as in Maggie vs. Mack truck.
   Ms. Cattani sounded the alarm on Facebook, gathering family and friends for a search of the farms and woods between the highways.
   Throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday the search continued with the help of Florence police and a friend using infrared night vision equipment, she said.
   Success came Sunday morning when a wet and bedraggled Maggie was found in a Have-A-Heart trap at the Wainwright Farms, some 4 miles from the grooming center.
   ”She would have crossed both Route 130 north and south” to get to that location which is where I-295, 130 and the turnpike exits meet,. Ms. Cattani said
   Maggie was taken to the Columbus Central Veterinary Hospital to be checked out, cleaned up and given a shot.
   As for now, “Maggie’s chillin’ out on the bed,” said her owner.