Tipster helps in bringing lost collie back to gravely ill owner

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on September 21, 2007

Noel, lost since Sept. 12, has been returned to her owner, after Amherst police received a tip from a caller that the shy collie was wandering in the woods not far from her High Street home.

Gail Krebs, of 116 High St., her owner, is gravely ill and was distraught that Noel, a formerly abused dog, had gotten loose. Krebs had adopted her in Virginia and brought the dog with her when she moved to Amherst six years ago.

She ran away while Krebs' nephew was walking her. Noel had not been loose outside the house the entire six years she lived in Amherst. She has a kidney ailment, resulting from the abuse she suffered, and is on medication.

The family had sent 250 letters to neighbors and hung up 100 posters around town telling people Noel was lost.

On Sept. 14, Amherst's Animal Welfare Officer Carol Hepburn, who spent hours looking for her, suggested that Krebs and her extended family contact the newspaper with a photo of Noel.

Police called Krebs' sister, Barbara Eddings, who lives downstairs from Krebs, with a tip from someone who had read about Noel in the Gazette that they had spotted the collie in the woods.

Hepburn said she was relieved there was a happy ending to the story.

"It was funny, because I had been in there at least three times that I can remember." She last looked in the woods on Saturday. "I just had a feeling. She either had to be in the woods or under someone's porch or woodpile."

Kevin Eddings, Krebs' nephew, and Barbara Eddings, his mother, quickly went to the woods after police called them with the tip and Kevin found Noel, who was scared and tried to run away from him at first.

Eddings' family called him a hero. "And I'm the villain, because I lost her in the first place," Kevin said at the celebration of Noel's return at Barbara Eddings' house on Monday night.

"Thank God," said Krebs, who had prayed for her beloved pet's return. "We got a call from a saint," Barbara Eddings said. The family does not know who the caller was.

Barbara Eddings said she was amazed at how many people had offered to help them find the dog. "Everyone cared. Everyone that knew us got involved. Even people who we didn't know offered to help. That's what's so wonderful about this town."