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Bella's adopters interviewed
From http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/7787119.htm: Dog's adoptive family: `We are not villains' COUPLE BREAK SILENCE ON DISPUTE By Yomi S. Wronge Mercury News They were vilified across the nation for keeping a dog from its rightful owner. But the family that adopted Bella, the golden retriever, spoke out Friday with an impassioned message: We're the good guys in this story. And the Los Gatos family broke its silence in dramatic fashion, appearing on the Greg Kihn show on KFOX radio, and then granting an interview to the Mercury News. The family, who asked not to be named, said they thought they were rescuing an abandoned dog when they adopted Bella as a birthday gift for their 10-year-old daughter. Shortly afterward, they left town, and were unaware that Bella's original owner gained national attention with her pleas to get her dog back. ``We are not villains,'' said the father. ``There are children harassing our daughter at school, and for what?'' said the girl's mother in an interview Friday afternoon. ``For following the law, trying to rescue a dog and rewarding a 10-year-old.'' Since it was first reported in the Mercury News and picked up by national media, people from Silicon Valley to Syracuse, N.Y., now know the saga of Bella: how the stray dog was adopted from an animal shelter, then found by her original owner hours later. Initially, the adoptive owner declined to return the dog, but on Wednesday, Bella was reunited with Niki Karanastasis. The girl's parents say they were thrilled when a friend called to say a handsome golden retriever had been brought to the shelter. On Jan. 9, the day they were to bring her home, the parents got a call from the shelter. Someone was claiming to have lost the dog. ``I have had dogs all my life, and at that point we said, well, we would never keep somebody else's dog, and so I'd be happy to return it,'' the mom told Kihn. But she said she wanted to speak to the owner first, to be sure they were all talking about the right dog. When the Humane Society set up the call, a man got on the phone. Turns out he was a friend of Karanastasis. After asking him a few basic questions about the dog's history, the Los Gatos couple said they were not convinced that the real owner had stepped forward. They were not the only ones who thought so. ``Multiple people had come down, multiple people had claimed to be the owner, and it was never clear who the owner was,'' said Christine Benninger, president of Humane Society Silicon Valley. Humane Society officials took the phone from the man and apologized, the family said. Satisfied they had a new pet, the couple kept the dog. They named her Lady. Their daughter fell in love. ``I even slept with her,'' the girl told Kihn. On Jan. 15, about a week after bringing Lady home, the family went back East for a weekend trip and left the dog in a grandmother's care. A distraught Karanastasis, meanwhile, went public. The Los Gatos parents returned to town late Monday night. When they arrived at work Tuesday, they discovered they had become front-page news. Scores of angry dog lovers were demanding that they give Bella back. The family is especially angry at the Mercury News, alleging the paper distorted its stories to make them look bad, and refused to include information that would explain their actions. ``We stand by the facts we reported,'' said Mercury News Executive Editor Susan Goldberg. ``We tried repeatedly to interview the family, and we're glad we can finally tell their side of the story.'' Overwhelmed, the family said they called the Humane Society and arranged to return the dog. It's been nothing but heartache for everyone involved. The family feels their reputation has been thoroughly trashed. They say that is why they do not want to be named in the paper. The 10-year-old girl is seeing a counselor to deal with the stress, her mother said. ``If I was that lady, I would want my dog back,'' the child said on the radio. Mom and Dad said they don't even want to think about getting another dog right now. |
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