His Dogged Persistence Pays Off : Man, Pit Bull Reunited After 1 1/2-Year Absence

It’s a modern-day version of “Lassie Come Home,” but the star is a pit bull named Mary.

The story began Jan. 24, 1989, when the dog disappeared from her Simi Valley home. During the following year and a half, Christopher Young, her bereaved owner, said he never gave up hope that he would be reunited with his beloved dog.

Once or twice a week, Young, 32, would drive more than 50 miles round trip to the Camarillo Animal Shelter to search for Mary. Last week, Young woke to a phone call from the pound. His lost pet had been found.

“After he got Mary, we all went into the parking lot and cried,” said Patty Doxtater, who works at the pound. She said that the day Young was reunited with Mary was the high point of her six years at the shelter.

But Young’s joy meant anguish for Dee Ortiz, who had taken care of the dog for the last 15 months.

“She really got attached to Mary,” Young said. “She asked to keep her. But no way, that’s my dog.”

Mary ended up at the pound after jumping the fence at Ortiz’s home to swim in the lake at the Simi Hills Golf Course.

After 18 months of phone calls and visits from Young, the shelter’s staff knew whom to call.

“At first, I was a little scared that she might not be as attached to me anymore,” Young said. “But as soon as I got her home, it was like having my old dog back.”

Now almost 5 years old, Mary still remembers how to carry her food bowl to Young at the mere mention of the word dinner. And she swims in Young’s pool, cleaning out floating leaves. Her talents were developed during four-hour daily training sessions Young gave her when she was a puppy.

“I know pit bulls have a bad reputation,” said Young. “And I’d even say about 90% of the males are mean. But you do have your exceptions, and Mary is definitely one of them.

“In fact, she doesn’t even look like a pit bull. She looks more like the Jerseymaid cow. My friends and I call her ‘Mary the Mutant Cow.’ ”

Ortiz and her husband, Alfonso, could not be reached for comment. But they weren’t the only ones to fall for Mary’s charms. At least five other people apparently harbored Mary during the first months that she was lost, Young said.

“I’d get these phone calls from people saying they have her, but then she’d run away from them before I got there,” said Young, who had put up pictures and flyers around Simi Valley and at veterinarians’ offices, and had placed advertisements in the local papers. He said he even walked the streets, carrying a picture of Mary and asking strangers if they had seen the dog.

“It’s funny that every call I got was one of concern and love,” he said. “And everyone asked if they could keep Mary.”

Mary has adjusted to life at home and to Betty and Wilma--the two dogs Young picked up during his many treks to the pound. “But I always left room in the house for Mary,” he said.