Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Thursday, January 05, 2006

La Crosse family seeks carnival worker, DNA testing to find missing pug

Two-year-old Alyssa Lundt frequently asks where her pet pug, Bosley, is. The family believes a carnival worker took the dog during Oktoberfest.

By AUTUMN GROOMS | La Crosse Tribune

Rhoda Lundt’s post on an Internet message board has been viewed more than 17,700 times since it was sent Oct. 13.

That might be due to the headline: “My pug (Bosley) was taken by a carnival worker!!”

On Oct. 9, the fawn-colored pug managed to find his way out of the fenced yard at the Lundts’ Charles Street home.

Some neighborhood kids said Bosley followed them to the North Side Oktoberfest grounds, where the event was in its final day.

There, the kids told Lundt, they saw a carnival worker tuck little Bosley into a trailer.

“Someone might not realize (Bosley) has a family that misses him,” Rhoda Lundt said, adding the dog wasn’t wearing tags that day.

Her post on the Worldwide Pug Meetup Message Board has drawn more than 560 responses from throughout the country, all hoping for Bosley’s safe return.

“I feel so bad for you and your family. Just keep up your strength and know that everyone on this board is behind you 110 (percent),” a Nov. 3 post from New York read.

But after three months, Rhoda and Mike Lundt still don’t know where Bosley might be.

After contacting Oktoberfest and the company that manages the carnival, Rhoda Lundt said it’s possible Bosley has made it to Gibsonton, Fla., where many carnival workers spend the winter. A man they think might know Bosley’s whereabouts can’t be contacted because he lives in a pop-up trailer, she said.

They have checked the online message board daily and shared news updates. They even started a “bring Bosley home” fund and rallied the Pug Rescue of Florida group to distribute fliers.

“The girls on the Internet have really been a source of strength to keep going,” Rhoda Lundt said.

“They keep offering suggestions and just encouraging me with different stories of pets (that have) been lost and found months later.”

A Florida woman has sent photographs via the Internet of a pug she picked up roaming around a carnival in the state.

The dog in the first photograph had Bosley’s, “stance and goofy grin,” Rhoda Lundt said. But in the second photograph, the forehead wrinkles were different from Bosley’s, she said.

After being advised he could be malnourished and traumatized, she and the Florida woman “decided to do DNA testing.”

The results are expected next week and will be compared with DNA samples from Bosley’s daughter to determine if it’s him, Rhoda Lundt said.

Rhoda Lundt has also heard from others in Florida that said a carnival worker who was in La Crosse might have sold the dog.

In the meantime, the family remains optimistic Bosley will be found. Alyssa, their 2-year-old daughter, frequently asks where the dog might be, Rhoda said.

Since Bosley went missing, Rhoda Lundt has become an advocate of pet microchipping. “Even if he had tags on, they could have still been taken off,” she said.

Finding Bosley