Olive is quite the celebrity in her Marysville neighborhood.
When she recently was stolen, signs asking for return of the beagle were plastered around nearby blocks by her human friend, Heidi Brown.
Brown’s neighbor, Donna Anderson, saw the nasty caper when she noticed the dog in the middle of the road.
Olive was not known to leave her yard.
“She never gets out,” Anderson said. “I went out on my front steps and called her.”
Anderson said a truck stopped in the road and the driver asked Anderson if she needed help. As Anderson explained the drama, a truck passenger, in her late 20s perhaps, hopped out of the rig and scooped up Olive. Then the truck sped off.
Brown, who works for Microsoft, was heartsick about losing her puppy.
She posted signs and drove everywhere looking for the dog.
Months went by.
“Then a woman stopped one afternoon and said that she had heard of a female beagle puppy roaming around,” Brown said. “She said that a couple had taken her in after finding her totally starved and covered in fleas.”
Brown said she guesses that whoever took Olive in their truck got scared or felt guilty and dropped her off in Everett.
The woman knew where Olive was living.
Brown waited for more news, afraid to get excited.
“I was really hesitant because I had gotten my hopes up so many times,” Brown said. “But sure enough, it was her.”
Olive was in Everett, almost 10 miles away.
Brown described her dog over the phone to a couple on Rucker Avenue and mentioned a distinguishing white splotch mark on the pooch.
The couple not only had her dog, they drove Olive to Marysville at 10:30 p.m. that night.
The beagle went crazy.
“She was so happy to be home that she knocked me over,” Brown said. “She is much bigger now. Then she followed me around at night to turn everything off, and plopped down in my bed like she always had.”
The best part is, the man who sold Olive to Brown found out she was stolen.
“He remembered me and the dog because I sent him a card in the mail shortly after adopting her, to thank him,” Brown said. “I let him know we named her Olive.”
The seller graciously gave her a new puppy while Olive was lost. That is how Oliver came to live at the Brown house in Marysville.
“So now I have two beagles,” Brown said. “I am so happy and thankful to everyone for helping me get Olive back.”
Olive doesn’t look like the fruit of a tree.
Brown named her puppy because the letters can spell “I love.”
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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