NUPD, owners seek

lost hearing dog

Reward offered

for return of dog

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm police and the family of a hearing-impaired man from Texas are looking for a lost hearing dog that was reported missing over Christmas weekend.

The dog disappeared Friday about 6 p.m. in New Ulm.

According an NUPD report, Lowell M. Wagness, of Dallas, Texas, stopped at Budget Mart in New Ulm to get a bite to eat during a trip to Hutchinson to visit relatives for the holidays.

His son Leslie, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was traveling with him along with a 2 1/2-year-old sheltie named Buddy.

They stopped at Budget Mart and tied Buddy up to a fence and gave him food and water while they went inside the store. They came out about 10 minutes later to find Buddy had finished eating and drinking.

Leslie said they went back inside the store. When they returned, Buddy was gone.

"There was no leash, no dog, no nothing," Leslie said from his mother's home in Cadott, Wis.

Lowell Wagness described Buddy as a having four white paws and a white shawl, a "very dark brown to black back and a wonderful loving set of brown eyes."

Wagness uses Buddy to hear people at the door and ringing telephones. He wakes Wagness up in the morning when his alarm clock goes off. The NUPD report said Buddy focuses on a person's face and hands because of his special training. Buddy also has a rabies tag from Dallas on his collar.

Wagness said he and Buddy have traveled more than 25,000 miles together. Leslie said his father was upset about losing the dog.

"Life is never the same without sharing the day with him," Lowell Wagness said.

Roseann Holder, Wagness' ex-wife, said the family doesn't want to press charges for fear it will prevent people from coming forward. She and Leslie said they think the dog might have been stolen because Buddy has never been known to leave Wagness voluntarily. Leslie said he and his father searched a six-block radius calling the dog's name, but were unsuccessful in locating him.

In an e-mail sent to The Journal, Wagness said he will gladly pay a reward for Buddy's return.

Anyone with information can call the New Ulm Police Department at (507) 233-6750.