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U.S. 19 stands still as rescuers save dog

Motorists leaped from their cars to chase down the little Westie that kept darting onto busy roads.

By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published December 25, 2005

CLEARWATER - A little dog brought traffic on U.S. 19 to a standstill Saturday morning as dozens of holiday shoppers, some wearing red Santa hats, jumped from their cars and trucks to save a white terrier running down the highway.

The chase began on Old Coachman Road south of St. Petersburg College and ended more than a mile away in the Costco Wholesale parking lot at Clearwater Mall.

Bridgette Puertas, 28, of Dunedin was headed to Sam's Club shortly after 10 a.m., when she saw the West Highland terrier trotting north in the northbound lanes of Old Coachman.

"Mom, there's a Westie in the road!" Puertas told her mother, Vickie Willis, 50, of Palm Harbor.

And they would know. Willis has a dog of the same breed. A bumper sticker on her Saturn reads: "My Westie is smarter than your honor student."

Thus began a 20-minute pursuit that took Puertas and Willis south through an open field, past the Chick-fil-A, across the six lanes of Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard, south on U.S. 19, then across the highway's eight lanes into Clearwater Mall. The daughter drove, the mother ran after the dog.

Along the way, Puertas said, dozens of motorists pulled over and joined in the chase.

"Lots of people in Santa hats jumped out, I noticed," said Puertas, who works in human resources at St. Petersburg College.

Just south of the U.S. 19 overpass at Gulf-to-Bay, Clearwater police Officer T.J. Miller was mystified. He saw drivers bailing out of their cars along what is usually a hair-raisingly busy road. The scene reminded him of the vehicles abandoned along the highway to Baghdad during the first Gulf War.

Then he saw the terrier loping down the center lane "like (she) was running south to St. Petersburg," he said.

"My biggest concern was that there was going to be an accident," Miller said. "Either a person was going to get hit or (the dog) was going to get hit."

The terrier made a U-turn at the Congo River Golf putt-putt course and headed north on U.S. 19. It veered onto the exit road to Gulf-to-Bay, then scampered into the parking lot at Clearwater Mall.

Along the way, passers-by joined and dropped out of the chase. Usually at least three or four people were in pursuit, but every time someone got close, the terrier doubled back the other way.

Even with "those little short legs, (she's) fast," Miller said. "I wish my car turned like that."

Finally, Miller and a half-dozen other people, including this reporter, surrounded the Westie on a landscaped median in the Costco parking lot. By then, she was tired and had slowed down. She made one last break and I lunged and grabbed her, scraping my knee on the asphalt. It was my first tackle since jayvee football in 10th grade.

Once caught, the dog calmed right down, panting. She was dirty, her whiskers were covered with burrs and she didn't have a collar, but she was well fed and groomed.

Puertas and Willis decided to care for the dog until someone claimed her. She took her home, bathed and fed her. She also called Pinellas County Animal Services to report the find.

While a good name for this dog might have been Dasher, her name is Chanel.

She is 3 and is one of three Westies owned by Martha Black, 62, a retired first-grade teacher.

About six hours after Chanel dug out of her yard on Fernwood Avenue, Black gave up searching the neighborhood and called Animal Services to ask if anyone had found a Westie. County officials gave her Puertas' number.

About an hour later, dog and owner were reunited.

While Chanel was missing, Black had worried that she would be hit or kept by someone. She was stunned to learn of Chanel's escapade and grateful her pet was saved by a fellow lover of Westies.

"It's a great Christmas gift for me," Black said.

[Last modified December 24, 2005, 23:42:16]