2 Lovers of 1 Dog : Lost-Found Squabble May Be Settled in Court

His name is either Gators Rocky Road or Barney III, depending on who is doing the talking. He is an 80-pound Labrador retriever with a shiny black coat and a slimy pink tongue. When confronted by visitors, he has a habit of bounding up to them, putting his huge paws on their shoulders and licking their faces unmercifully.

“He’s a wonderful animal,” said Kelmar Bowden, who calls him Rocky. “He scares people with his bark, but he’s just a big teddy bear. Everyone who meets him loves him.”

Beverly Holm, who met him six months ago, agrees. “We love him very much,” she said of the dog, which she calls Barney. “He lives in our home now and he’s a very happy dog.”

He is also the center of an emotional debate in Long Beach that has caused the police to be summoned and resulted in a small claims lawsuit that may be heard on national television.

At issue: Just who owns the big dog that seems to be irresistible.

It all started in January when Rocky, a purebred who is registered with the American Kennel Assn., disappeared from Bowden’s back yard where he had been living for most of his four years. The dog had run away several times before, said Bowden, who works as a night nurse. But she and her husband, who also have two other dogs, had always been able to retrieve him from the local animal shelter.

This time, however, Rocky was gone. The Bowdens searched their Wrigley neighborhood for signs of the lost pet. For the next several months, they say, they put signs up in the area and made twice-weekly trips to the shelter. Eventually they gave up.

Enter Beverly Holm, who lives less than a block away from the Bowdens and says she found the lost dog walking in front of her house on Jan. 10, the day the Bowdens say he disappeared.

Holm is no stranger to lost dogs. A retired secretary, she has made a career since 1986 of reuniting lost dogs with their owners. Combing newspaper ads and lost-and-found lists at the local shelter, she has returned no fewer than 84 wandering canines to their worried owners in the last three years, she says. And after seeing her praised lavishly in a 1987 Press-Telegram column, dog lovers throughout the city donated nearly $2,000 to help defray her expenses, plus a personal computer to help her cause.

When Holm found the black Labrador in question, she says, she employed her usual methods to locate its owner. She placed ads in several newspapers. She registered the dog at the local animal shelter. And both she and her husband, who also loves dogs, took the animal on frequent walks through the neighborhood to enhance its visibility.

As weeks turned into months and no one claimed the dog, however, the champion of lost hounds gradually became attached to her latest charge. She began calling him Barney. She gave him all his shots, worked with him to overcome what she perceived as his timidity around humans and groomed him until his coat and teeth shone. Finally, she bought a dog license naming herself as his official owner.

Followed Him Home

Then three weeks ago the Bowdens recognized Rocky/Barney during one of his jaunts in the neighborhood. The dog was being escorted by a relative of Holm. Overjoyed, they followed him around the corner to his new home only to discover that his new keepers were less than overjoyed to see them.

The next day the Bowdens returned with a bewildered policeman. When that did not work, they filed a suit in the Small Claims Division of Long Beach Municipal Court demanding that the dog be returned.

Bowden says that Rocky is rightfully hers, was a well-treated and well-loved member of her family and belongs back in her yard rather than at the Holm household where he has become overweight.

Holm says that Barney is happier at her house where he can live inside, get good grooming and good food, and that he is no longer inclined to roam. She says his girth was a problem well before she found him.

A Moral Issue

The law, according to local animal authorities, does nothing to clarify the situation. “It’s a moral issue,” said Roger Hatakeyama, superintendent of the city’s Bureau of Animal Control which enforces local animal ordinances. While dog licenses are often considered proof of ownership, he said, they are not incontrovertible. And although the law generally defines animal ownership as synonymous with providing “care and custody” to a given animal, Hatakeyama said, it does not cover situations in which the right to provide such care is itself in question.

A judge is expected to resolve the dispute later this week, either in Long Beach Municipal Court or on a nationally syndicated daytime television program, The People’s Court, which is considering airing the case. If accepted for broadcast, said Eddy Jo Bernal, publicity director for Ralph Edwards/Stu Billett Productions, the case will be heard on Wednesday by a judge in Los Angeles for airing in the fall.

“A piece of our life is missing,” Bowden said. “There’s an empty space where (Rocky) should be. It’s painful knowing that your dog lives there and not being able to have him.”

Said Holm: “He’s our dog now. I just couldn’t give him back to them. I know he doesn’t want to leave us.”