The Lucier family scoured the neighborhood, shelters and social media trying to find their beloved cairn terrier, Waffles, who was stolen Tuesday while tied up outside Met Market in the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle, according to Kiro TV. Robert Lucier and his two children, ages 6 and 11, had been plastering posters all over their neighborhood for four days trying desperately to find Waffles.
Tips poured in, including several claiming to have seen a homeless woman around town with what the tipsters said was surely the Luciers' missing terrier.
When yet another call came in by a woman claiming to see a homeless woman washing Waffles in a public bathroom at the Seattle Center, Lucier jumped on his bike, calling police for back up along the way, according to the New York Daily News. He wasn't expecting what he saw when he got there.
Lucier's dog waffles was a blond and grey cairn terrier, while this dog looked like Waffles, it was black in color.
"This dog looked quite a bit older and looked really fearful" and the so-called "homeless" woman the dog was with was "relatively neatly dressed," Lucier said.
"I said 'Waffles?' and she came toward me but a lot of dogs are friendly if you bend forward," he said.
He then noticed the tell-tale sign of hair dye chemicals and thought who on earth dyes their dog?
"'This has got to be Waffles. No on dyes their dog!'" he recalled exclaiming. "And then this woman tried to take off! We tussled while Waffles got away."
Three police cars pulled up and got statements from both parties, each claiming the dog was theirs.
"Thank goodness she had a microchip," said Lucier.
Waffles is home now, and experts say the hair dye will take time to come out.
"She's still shocked. She's normally such a friendly, outgoing dog. She's still walking around with her tail between her legs," he said. "It's going to take a little time for her to get adjusted."
This isn't the first story of a dog dyed black after being stolen. A red and white pitbull was stolen from her home on Thanksgiving in California, according to the Examiner. Two months later, she showed up at a local animal shelter, dyed jet black, but luckily enough with a microchip that traced her back to her owners.
