Readers ring up a happy ending for dog story
Published February 10, 2005
Michael Korzeniewski's cell phone rang in Cape Coral, Fla., on Wednesday evening. Too bad the call came 40 days late.
It was from the alleged dognapper, Chicago lawyer James Foley, who found Ariel the dog while on vacation in Florida, took her home to Chicago and refused to send Ariel back to her master, Korzeniewski's 7-year-old son, Miles.
Foley had stalled for more than a month, saying he couldn't give the dog back because the family couldn't prove ownership and because he'd already given it to some mystery nun Foley refused to name.
That mystery nun finally figured right from wrong because Foley was on the phone telling Korzeniewski that the dog was coming home.
"I can't believe it," Korzeniewski told me, shortly before Ariel was brought into the baggage area at the Ft. Myers Airport and let out of the crate to jump up happily on her boy and his family.
"He said he was bringing the dog tonight," Korzeniewski said. "Your readers must have really put some pressure on his law firm."
How was your conversation?
"It was short. He asked me how I was and I said fine. I asked him how he was and he said, `Not so good,' and I said, `Well, I figured.'
"He said he'd be in the airport with the dog. That was it. Then he hung up."
I asked how his son had received the news.
"He's so excited," Korzeniewski said. "This will be way past his bedtime, but we're taking him to the airport. You should see him right now. He's running around as if his pants are on fire. He wouldn't miss this."
Korzeniewski said he didn't want the readers of this column to miss it either. He wanted you to see the reunion in the photograph running on Page 1 of today's newspaper.
That's only fair, since you're the ones who called Foley's law firm--Hoey & Farina--in such numbers that you swamped the office phones and panicked the secretaries and apparently blew out the computer server with angry anti-lawyer e-mails.
What bothered me and most readers is that weeks ago, after Foley knew the dog had a boy in Florida, he didn't return her. He continued to stall even after the Florida family wrote an angry letter to his law firm and called the police.
Foley told me that he and the other lawyers at the firm were amused by the letter from Miles' parents and said the lawyers "laughed at it."
That incensed you readers. Laughing at a boy and his family over a hostage dog might be funny to some people, but not to a 7-year-old boy, and not to the thousands of readers who called or e-mailed the law firm Wednesday.
So I called the boss of the firm, James Farina, and asked him whether the letter was indeed, funny, like a clown.
"I didn't laugh," he said. "There was no laughter at that letter. Nobody laughed."
I didn't have to mention that the firm received the letter weeks ago, yet no immediate action was taken to send the dog back home. So I asked if there was any news.
"Well, there is some good news to report," Farina said.
What good news?
"I had a discussion with Mr. Foley this morning," he said.
And what did you discuss?
"We talked about the dog," Farina said.
And what did you say about the dog?
"I told him to do the right thing," Farina said. "And I told him he should do the right thing immediately, if you get my meaning."
And what is the "right thing," exactly?
"The right thing was for him to personally bring that dog to that family," Farina said. "I mean personally. And I mean immediately. It will be done by today. I guarantee it. It shouldn't have gone this far. And now it's over."
No, it shouldn't have gone this far. But it did. And Farina helped end it, so he deserves some credit for that.
Still, the mystery-nun angle bothers me--since I don't believe in mystery nuns.
"As far as I know, the nun exists," Farina said.
What's her name? Where is she?
"[Foley] didn't tell me," Farina said. "He says the nun exists. The main thing is that the dog will be home in a few hours."
Korzeniewski and his wife, Stefanie, called late Wednesday. They were on their way home from the airport, with Ariel.
"Miles is really, really happy," Stefanie said. "She jumped up, he hugged her. He insists that Ariel will sleep with him. There are little tears in his eyes, he's so happy."
I could hear Miles and Ariel talking to each other in the background, but I didn't want to interrupt them.
"Miles is so impressed," his mother said. "He now realizes that there are good people in the world. And he kept saying to his dad, `Dad, you're the best dad in the world.'"
What did Lawyer Foley say?
"Nothing," she said. "Because he wasn't there. But the dog was there. And Miles was there. And we were there."
jskass@tribune.com