Chris Smith: 3 dogs, 3 tales, 2 happy endings hopefully yet to come

Yuki, Maximo and Lucy are the stars of these stories, two of which await happy endings.

Yuki, a mostly black Chihuahua, came to Sonoma County with visitor Silvia Barrera, who is Spanish but lives in Mexico. Nearly two weeks ago, a simple stop at a gas station north of Santa Rosa turned into a nightmare for Barrera, who loves her service dog like kin but briefly lost track of her.

On Nov. 19, Barrera and two friends stepped into the mini-mart of the Larkfield 76 station near the Luther Burbank Center. Barrera carried Yuki into the store, then set her down while paying.

Barrera was involved with her friends at the moment, and she forgot she’d brought Yuki into the store. The women returned to their car and drove off, without the dog.

Before the tourists returned to the station, someone picked up Yuki. A security video from outside the market, near the pumps, shows a man trying to catch the dog, eventually scooping the tiny Yuki into a bag and driving off.

Distraught, Barrera has hired a private detective to help her. She said she cannot imagine leaving America without Yuki.

“I have my flight ticket to leave the country in two days, but I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

If you have the dog, know where it is or think you have seen it, call 707-836-1313.

Barrera offers a reward for the return of Yuki, no questions asked. She pleads for compassion from whomever has the dog.

HHHHHH

ITALY IS WHERE Sonoma County’s Sean Sullivan and Sophia Ficarra chose to marry a number of weeks ago.

The couple was searching for porcini mushrooms in woods outside of Umbertide, southeast of Florence, when a mess of a dog appeared on a ridgeline.

Wearing a bell on its collar, the young, thin, tan dog, filthy and covered with ticks and fleas, ran right to the Americans. “He wouldn’t leave us,” Sean said.

He and Sophia learned the collar bell signified that the dog, a breed of scenthound called a Segugio Italiano, was used to hunt wild boar. The pair spoke to hunters at a bar, then to one of the rural area’s veterinarians.

They learned that the dog’s owner was an older man, a hunter, who no longer wanted it so he simply abandoned it.

The newlyweds came quickly to love the dog. The Italian vet treated and cleaned him up, then helped Sean and Sophia gather the documents required to take the animal home.

All three are now in Santa Rosa, happily adjusting to family life. The dog, thought to be about a year old, answers to Maximo, or Max.

“He’s just a good boy,” Sean said. How astounded and pleased is he that he and Sophia went to Italy to be wed and “came home with a baby.”

HHHHHH? THEN THERE’S LUCY. This past Wednesday evening, the French bulldog was lifted from her yard in central Santa Rosa.

The people who love her, members of the Kumparak family, are beside themselves. They’re searching, distributing flyers, posting on Facebook, doing everything they can to get Lucy back.

Bobby Kumparak said he will pay a $5,000 reward, no questions asked, for the return of his dog, who requires medication for a medical condition.

He can be reached by email at omegabobby77@gmail.com.

“We’re not looking for anything other than the safe return of our dog,” he said in one of his Facebook videos.

“We just want Lucy back.”

You can reach Columnist Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.