Canine family reunion

PALMER — Tikaani wasn’t home long before movers arrived to deliver all of his family’s belongings from Virginia.

A husky rescued as part of one of the largest seizures of abused and neglected animals in recent memory, Tikaani was a little skittish. The noise of plastic sheeting being laid out was too much for him. He was down the stairs and out the door before his owner, Robyn Dexter, could put a hand on him.

“Hey, dude, I think your husky just took off,” Dexter recalled Saturday hearing the movers say.

Dexter said she sprang into action and was quickly out the door to try and chase down her dog.

“This was obviously my first experience with a scared husky,” she said.

Tikaani was gone for four months.

Dexter said in that time she never gave up hope of finding him. She kept at it on Craigslist and wherever she could. When someone finally called in a Tikaani spotting he was less than a mile and a half from the house.

“He’s a completely different dog,” Dexter said.

Whereas before he was unfriendly and not particularly treat-motivated, now “all he wants to do is lay under my legs and get treats,” Dexter said.

Tikanni, and probably a dozen of his erstwhile kennel-mates, gathered Saturday at the Mat-Su Borough Animal Shelter. All of them appeared healthy and friendly. A lot of them looked nearly identical.

That’s because, genetically at least, they probably are closely related. The dogs all came from Willow breeder Frank Rich, whose animal cruelty case shocked animal lovers in January 2011. Dogs were found starving and dehydrated. All told, 157 live animals were seized and 22 animals were found dead.

The seizure overwhelmed Mat-Su Borough resources, but private donations poured in to help. Rich was eventually sentenced to 180 days in jail.

Jacque Briskey’s husky, Peggy Sue, has just three legs. She said when Peggy Sue came to the shelter she was missing a foot and shelter staff decided the best course of action was to take the rest of the dog’s leg.

Briskey said her dog spent the first two weeks on the bottom level of her tri-level home, in essentially a “dark cave.” Eventually, Peggy Sue warmed up to the family, especially to the Briskeys’ other dog, Max.

“We haven’t found anything to motivate her other than Max or being able to go hide in a cave,” she said.

But she was grateful to the borough for deciding to save Peggy Sue’s life.

“Given her physical condition, they really could have chosen to put her to sleep,” she said. “But she’s got a great personality and we love her.”

Early on, Kaci Knueppel’s dog Fagan refused to leave his water dish. If he saw Knueppel walk by he’d try and follow, but nudging his dish along with him.

“It was like, ‘dude, we’re going to come right back,’” Knueppel recalled.

Since then he’s warmed up.

“He’s probably the best surprise I could’ve ever asked for,” she said.

Folks in the crowd asked if he was like their dogs. Is he a fence climber? Knueppel said he tried that once when the snow was up high enough. She remembered being out in waist-deep snow helping him back over. He also spins in circles when he gets excited, a lot like his brethren. And he shares a personality trait with Tikaani.

“He’s not really treat-motivated,” Knueppel said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.