Tyson’s previous owner gave him no vet care. He will have a distemper mix vaccine, bath, and will be wormed before leaving the shelter. He's an affectionate and confident boy despite the small amount of attention he received.

4/14/03: UPDATE!!! We have found Tyson a foster home. Someone from the shelter is going to be transporting him to our area tomorrow where the foster parent is to meet them and pick him up.

4/15/03: When Tyson’s foster mom had picked him up, she took him to the Hayfield Animal Hospital on Telegraph Rd. in Alexandria, VA. But when she went to get the him out of the car, Tyson got away…I believe her young son may have opened the door prematurely, before Tyson’s leash had been put on him. One of the attendants at the vet and his foster mom chased after Tyson for quite some distance before losing sight of him.

We got a call asking if we could help find him. So we jumped into the car and headed over to the vet’s office where we had all agreed to rendezvous. One of the ladies at the vet made up some flyers for us and when they were done, we split them up so they could get posted as we searched. Meanwhile, the foster mom had dropped Michael and one of our Chows off in the area Tyson had last been seen. By the time we were ready to join him in the search, he called to say he’d spotted Tyson in the Kingstowne Village community off of Hayfield Rd. down a bit from the vet’s office.

We kept in contact via our cell phones, and that was how Michael led us to the area he’d seen Tyson. So, we drove up the one street he’d named, and we spotted Tyson laying in the grass behind some townhouses, and then we saw Michael approaching on foot from the other side. Unfortunately, Tyson laid there only a short time before he got up and took off running. The foster mom got back into her vehicle and followed his flight. But ultimately, Tyson disappeared, not to be seen by us again sometime around 7 p.m. Between the four of us, we searched for Tyson for four hours. Michael had been able to find Tyson several times before the rest of us joined in the search, but each time he got close, Tyson would run off, having been scared by other people who were in the vicinity.

Tyson is friendly, but was scared and didn’t appear to respond to his name very well. He is about 1-2 yrs. old, red, and wearing a choke chain and a blue nylon collar. We didn’t know if he had any ID on the collars. About 8 p.m. it was getting too dark for us to continue in our search, so we finally called it a night, hoping the next day would bring better success.

4/16/03: I couldn’t go back to sleep after Michael left for work (thoughts of Tyson being out there somewhere kept going through my mind), so at 5 a.m. I sat at the computer generating a flyer with Tyson’s picture to put up as the ones that went up the day before and had all kinds of scratch outs on them as there was some incorrect info on them, and there weren't enough anyway. Then I put out a number of emails asking that others say some prayers that we not only find him while we are out, but that he would allow us to capture him when we went out later in the day. We’d decided we’d look for him after we took Princess Fluffy to the vet at noon.

We decided that instead of taking Princess Fluffy back to the kennel we would take her with us on the search for Tyson. So we were able to get a quick start in the early afternoon for the missing boy. We had two vehicles as I’d taken the Princess to the vet and Michael met me there after leaving his office. This meant that we could cover more ground. We stopped off at MacDonald’s to get a bite to eat and by coincidence, as we were walking back out to our cars, we found the other two rescuers were next to their cars parked right across the parking lot from our cars. We gave them some of the flyers we’d printed up with Tyson’s picture, and they gave us some of the flyers they’d printed up on vivid colored papers. Then we all set off to resume our search for Tyson.

We drove around and searched and put up flyers on every stop sign we could find that wasn't metal in Kingstowne, and crossed one another’s paths from time to time, while the one rescuer went back to the vet’s office to set up the trap with some food in case Tyson returned there as he had earlier that morning. Finally, while we were out putting up a ton more flyers, I came upon a woman taking our flyers down from one of the stop sign posts. I stopped the car, rolled down the window, and she asked, "Is he yours?" I said yes, and she then told me, "Animal Control picked him up right there this morning. I was taking down the signs so I could call you when I got home to let you know." I hugged her, and said thanks, then called Michael and told him we most definitely were NOT going to find him...he was at the shelter. I was right down the street from where Michael was walking with the Princess in his search, so I drove to where he was so we could decide upon our next action. We got back into the vehicles and went to the vet’s office to let them know Tyson had been found.

We'd alerted animal control as soon as Tyson had gotten loose. Because he is a Chow, they made an extra effort to find and capture him. We had already called the one rescuer as we drove back to the vet’s to let her know Tyson had been found and she called the shelter in Alexandria to see if he was there. She’d called back to say that the Alexandria shelter didn’t have him and that when she’d called the Fairfax shelter, all she got was a recording. One of the ladies at the vet’s office set to calling the shelters as well to see if she could find out anymore for us. That was when we found out that Tyson was at the Fairfax shelter. The rescuer spoke with a lady at the shelter and said we could pick him up if we could get there before 6 p.m. and it was already 5 p.m. It was rush hour and we were on the opposite side of the county, which may as well be the other side of the country during rush hour. But not only did we need to get Tyson picked up, but he had to be taken to Pender Veterinary Clinic by the ACO to get a rabies shot before they would release him. Then we needed to get Tyson back to Hayfield Animal Hospital by 7 p.m. when they closed. We immediately got into our vehicles so Michael could make the trek across the county while I took the Princess back to the kennel by 5:30 p.m.

We decided at that time of the evening it was best to try the Fairfax. Co. Pkwy to get to the shelter in Fairfax in time, because going the normal routes would take much longer than time allowed. About a quarter of 6 p.m., Michael arrived at the shelter where he paid the fees to get Tyson released to us. Even after the stop at the vet in Fairfax for the rabies vaccination, he made good time returning by way of the Parkway on his return trip to the Hayfield vet office, arriving before the 7 p.m. deadline. Tyson was now safe and sound where he would spend the night before getting his medical checkup, being neutered, and receiving a microchip.

4/17/03: This afternoon we went to visit with Princess Fluffy for a bit, and then headed over to the vet to see Tyson and get some photos. They put him in one of the examining rooms that was really great as it was freezing outdoors. Fortunately for the two days we were searching for him, we had temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s. But today it had dropped down to the high 40s, with a very brisk wind blowing, making it feel MUCH colder…more like it should snow. We were able to get some pictures of the boy, but it was obvious that he is still a bit scared after his experiences of the past couple of days. Thank goodness Tyson was found and we have him back! Oh and by the way…we want to thank all those who said special prayers for his safe return.

After Tyson’s stay at the vet’s office, he was returned to the intended foster family. Tyson had a rough start at the foster home as he wanted to chase the cats of the household and needed to be trained not to do so. He has been there for many months now and is doing well.