Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HENRY LENGTH: Medium
Sue Collins lost hers - a 17-pound mixed-breed named Mugsey.
That Collins lost her dog and took steps to try to find him is not uncommon. Her persistence and the results of her tireless effort are.
Mugsey disappeared five months ago, but Collins clings to the hope that he will return.
She continues to run newspaper ads and to place laminated signs everywhere she can. She is offering a reward of $600.
She has spent thousands of dollars - "I haven't had time to add it all up," Collins says - trying to bring Mugsey back home.
"Some people might think it's ridiculous, but he's special to us."
Mugsey disappeared May 27. Bill Collins, Sue's husband, went outside with the dog. Collins went back inside for a few minutes, and when he went back out to check on the 11-year-old dog, Mugsey was nowhere in sight.
Mugsey left in the same fashion that he arrived.
Nine years ago, he trotted out of the woods that surround the Collinses' Franklin County home. Skinny and dirty, the dog had a tattered collar fastened around his neck with a piece of thin wire attached.
Sue Collins told her husband that she would clean the animal up and find it an owner. She didn't have to look very far.
The short-legged, big-eared dog quickly grew on her. He looked like a cross between a collie and a dachshund.
A few days later, he got his name. Bill Collins, a Wake Forest University graduate, was a basketball fan. The point guard for the Demon Deacons at the time was none other than a short and stocky fireplug named Tyrone "Mugsey" Bogues.
"The name fit perfectly," Sue Collins says.
The Collinses also owned another dog at the time, a stray they took in named Doodles. Doodles and Mugsey became fast friends. They traveled with the Collinses, who don't have any children.
Sue Collins said the two dogs were so close that Mugsey stayed by Doodles' side after she got sick last year and had trouble getting out of her bed.
"He'd lay down and put his head on her," Collins said.
When Doodles didn't get any better last year, the Collinses made a difficult decision. She was put to sleep.
"We noticed a change in Mugsey after that," Sue Collins said. "He would just sit and howl for a long time after she died."
In a span of seven months, the Collinses lost both their dogs.
But Sue Collins is determined to bring Mugsey home.
Because of her hard work, she has received hundreds of phone calls from as far away as Blacksburg.
Collins keeps every phone number.
Some say they've seen Mugsey. Others just call to console Collins. One girl called and said she would help search through the woods for Mugsey. Another call turned up a lead, but it was the wrong dog.
It was a stray, though.
The Collinses brought it home, and another family member now owns the dog.
"It's amazing," Sue Collins says of the developments. "People really do care."
Mugsey, however, remains at large, and Sue Collins' worst fear is that he may have been sold for medical research.
Is five months too long to bring about a happy ending? Maybe not.
When Sue Collins was a high school student in Bassett, she lost her full-bred Boston terrier named Pug.
Six months later, her grandmother was on her way to a cemetery in Bassett when she spotted the dog at another residence. When Collins and her family confronted the man who owned the home, they were told Pug was payment for mechanical work he did on someone's automobile, Sue Collins said.
Pug was promptly returned to his original owner.
"We got Pug back, so it can happen," she says. "When I go outside, I expect Mugsey to come running out of the woods just like he did when we found him."
Anyone with information about Mugsey should call (703) 483-2553.
by CNB