WCCO Story Helps Reunite Lost Dog With Owners

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Sometimes in the news world we can make a difference in a round-about sort of way.

That's what happened in the case of "Molly the dog," who was lost in north Minneapolis.

It's a tale that began on June 3. That evening Molly, the 4-year-old Shitzu, got out of Carolyn Prehoda's yard and took off. The most upsetting thing for Carolyn and her husband was that Molly had been under the weather and the medication they were giving her had just started to work.

"We were just sick that she was gone. Because we tried so hard to figure out what the problem was and we just found out," said Prehoda.

Neighbors who saw Molly told Carolyn she was running towards north Minneapolis. And Carolyn knew right away that finding Molly in the storm-ridden neighborhood would be extremely difficult.

"Because of the tornado, going through it was quite a mess with the trees down. It would be hard to see her because she is so small," said Carolyn.

The neighborhood is half a dozen blocks from Carolyn's Golden Valley home. So she and her husband did everything they could to find Molly. They called the humane society, rescue kennels, the City of Minneapolis, they drove up and down city streets and even called a pet service that called 500 homes for them.

"I'm just determined not to give up. We had worked with her so much that I said I'm not going to give up. I'm going to try every channel that I could possibly think of to find her," said Carolyn.

As luck would have it, the channel that worked was Channel 4. Leading into a 6 p.m. story photographer Garrett Young and I did on the north Minneapolis tornado on June 10 is a five second clip of a woman holding a dog that looked a lot like Molly.

"Our friend Marge Anderson had seen it on the 6 p.m. news. She called and said, 'I think I saw Molly.' I said, 'oh really?' She said, 'yeah,'" said Prehoda.

Carolyn then called WCCO-TV to get the address, and 17 days after she lost Molly she and her husband drove by the home. What they saw in the front yard put a smile on their faces.

"I called her name and she came running as far as she could on her leash," said Prehoda.

Pictures and a microchip proved that Molly was Carolyn's. The woman who had been keeping her said she found her running through the storm damage and gave her back without question.

Because the Prehoda's weren't sure if they would ever see Molly again, they got a Yorky puppy named Teddy, just a couple days before their Shitzu came back. Now instead of having no dogs, they have two, and a dog tale made possible by five seconds of random video.

"One in a million I think. Without her being on TV I don't think we ever would have found her. I really, deep down in my heart didn't think we would get her back. But thanks to WCCO, we were able to," said Prehoda.

Carolyn said Molly was a replacement for another dog they had for nine years who died. She said that made her more determined to get her back.