Buck's Back

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Julie Fritz is reunited with her son’s one-eyed dog, Buck. Her son, Tim Langley, is a member of the Oregon National Guard and is training in Georgia for a tour in Iraq.Bob Pennell

Buck the one-eyed blue heeler is home safe and sound.

The wandering dog made headlines when Oregon National Guard member Tim Langley's girlfriend, Diana Snyder of Eagle Point, posted ads around the valley searching for the lost pooch.

A story in Sunday's Mail Tribune prompted a deluge of e-mails, phone calls and fliers posted around the valley.

Residents of Rogue River, where Buck was last seen, e-mailed to promise they'd drive around looking for the dog. A professor at Southern Oregon University posted online ads and a local investigator tackled the case "pro bono."

Ultimately, Selma residents Danny and Regina Jordan actually were "found" by the lost dog, who followed them around as they spent part of Friday on Lake Selmac.

At first, the family thought the dog belonged to a family from Crescent City. They spent part of the week tracking that family down before hearing of news reports about the one-eyed dog.

That Buck wound up at Lake Selmac, north of Grants Pass, is just the latest in a string of unknowns about his two years of life.

Buck was on the run after his master, Langley, headed to Georgia for an advanced training before being deployed to Iraq for a year and left him with a friend in Grants Pass.

A trip to Boatnik with Langley's pal, Zak Firestone of Grants Pass, spooked the one-eyed dog, resulting in a series of relocations.

First, a family in Grants Pass found the dog wandering alone and returned him to an old address, still listed on his dog tags, near the Valley of the Rogue State Park. The family had adopted Buck from a shelter after a tractor-chasing accident that cost him his missing eye, but surrendered him to Sanctuary One animal rescue in Grants Pass where Langley's mom claimed the dog for her son.

When Buck was returned to his former owner last week, his collar was removed and he disappeared again.

While the Jordans were looking to Northern California for the dog's rightful owners, Mail Tribune readers and Langley's friends and family were scouting Rogue River.

Until Thursday, when the Jordans found Snyder's number and called to reunite her with her boyfriend's dog.

"I'm so happy someone found him," Snyder said on her way to meet the Jordans in Grants Pass. "Tim had been so worried."

A choked-up Langley said he was grateful his dog had been returned.

"Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God. I'm just happy to have my dog back," he said on a conference call from Georgia.

"I was really surprised someone would return him and they didn't just find him and keep him. He's a great dog."

Langley's mom, Julie Fritz of Eagle Point, drove with Snyder to retrieve the wandering canine.

"He looks good. He's a little shaky and a little thin and he smells really bad," Fritz said. "But he's going to be just fine back at home waiting for Tim to get back."

Jordan said he was happy to return the dog to a fellow veteran.

"I was in the Army 12 years. If it was my dog, I'd want him returned and want to know he was OK," he said.

"He's a neat little dog. I really liked him."

Private investigator Tim Martinez, of White City, said the community's response to the lost dog was a nice gesture for a solider.

"All we needed to know was a solider was about to go over to Iraq to serve his country and he was going to be worrying about his little buddy," Martinez said.

"I'm sure there were folks out looking and helping that no one even knows about."

Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at buffypollock@juno.com.

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