THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090219
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
A tiny, 14-pound dog with a mop of silky beige fur was on the receiving end of tons of love when it was lost for several days in the woods around Pungo recently.
Chrissy, a Lhasa apso/Chihuahua mix who belongs to Debbie Vaughan and her son Tony, ran off after she was in an automobile accident on Indian River Road. The accident occurred when Ron Burroughs, Debbie Vaughan's fiance, swerved to avoid hitting a deer.
Burroughs met up with the deer when he was driving his van down the wooded stretch of road at twilight Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Vaughan's two dogs, Chrissy and Tara, a German shepherd, were along for the ride.
``A deer ran in front of him,'' Vaughan said. ``Instead of hitting the deer, he went in the ditch and rolled over three times. The van was completely totalled. It's a wonder he's alive.''
Burroughs was taken to the hospital with broken ribs and other injuries. Tara, lodged between the back seat and front seat, was unhurt, but little Chrissy disappeared. ``They think she went through the windshield,'' Vaughan said.
The search was on for the little dog. No one knew whether she was alive or dead or whether she was nearby or had run away in a panic. Vaughan's father and her son both went out to search in the dark following the accident and when Debbie returned in the early hours of the morning after being with Burroughs at the hospital, she went and called and called at the site of the accident.
``The tow truck driver (Dennis Gardner) who works at Pungo Servicenter even went back in the rain and the dark to call for her,'' Vaughan said.
But no Chrissy.
The next day, the troops mobilized. Several friends, family members and Vaughan's colleagues from Holly Ridge Manor Veterinary Medical Center were out on Indian River Road in full force. Chrissy had been a Christmas gift two years ago to Vaughan's son, Tony, but the little dog also was well known at the clinic because she went to work every day with Vaughan, the office manager there.
Search party members went from house to house spreading the word about the tiny dog that at best, was wandering dazed nearby. ``Here it was Super Bowl Sunday and all these folks were out in the woods looking for her. The people who lived up and down Indian River Road in the houses I went up to were so concerned.
``I was absolutely amazed at how concerned they were,'' Vaughan stressed.
``About 1 p.m. that day a gentleman said he saw my dog running in the street right after the accident,'' she went on. ``That gave us the incentive to keep going. ``
The search continued until it started getting dark. Vaughan stopped to tell Chrissy's tale to a woman standing out by a Suburban on the side of the road. `` `Oh, my God, my husband's out in the woods chasing her now,' she told me,'' Vaughan related.
The woman said they had seen the dog lapping water from a roadside ditch and stopped, but Chrissy had run away from the strangers. Vaughan's veterinarian suggested that the dog was probably traumatized and wouldn't come to anyone.
``Anyhow we knew she was out there, but they were calling for cold weather and I was petrified,'' Vaughan said.
Chrissy didn't turn up that night, either.
The next morning Sharon Stewart, receptionist at the veterinary clinic, and her son decided to head out an hour before she had to be at work to search for Chrissy again. And much to her surprise, the little dog was there, lapping out of the same roadside ditch.
``I got out of the car,'' Stewart said, ``and she started running away. I said, `Chrissy, stop!' and then I bent down and said, `Chrissy, girl!' and she came running to me and jumped in my arms.
``My son said it looked like one of those Kodak moments.''
Chrissy had only a scratch on her nose. Burroughs is recovering from the accident and now Vaughan has only thanks for all the helpful folks in Pungo.
``I've lived in Pungo for two years,'' she said, ``but never realized how helpful and how concerned everyone could be,'' she said. ``They were all wonderful.''
P.S. Sample a variety of chocolate confections at an afternoon tea at 2 or 3:30 p.m. today and on Feb. 18, at the Hunter House Victorian Museum in Norfolk. A ``romance'' tour of the museum will follow. Admission is $5 and reservations can be made by calling 623-9814 MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Chrissy, a Lhasa apso/Chihuahua mix, and her owner, Debbie Vaughan,
left, enjoy another ``Kodak moment'' with Sharon Stewart, who found
the dog who had been missing for days in Pungo woods since an
automobile accident.
by CNB