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Dog rescuer is determined to find Pooh Bear

By Anne Glover, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A sign in Vinoy Park offers a $5,000 reward for a bichon frise missing since April 7. More than 600 fliers have been posted.
	[EDMUND D. FOUNTAIN | Times]

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Where did Pooh Bear go?

A nearly monthlong mystery of a missing bichon frise took a new twist Tuesday.

Huge posters offering a $5,000 reward greeted residents of the Old Northeast neighborhood in St. Petersburg as they made their commute home along Beach Drive and other venues near where the dog disappeared.

Patricia Bonati, the dog's owner, has enlisted a large support network to find Pooh Bear, whom she hopes someone picked up.

Bonati, who lives at 17th Avenue and Beach Drive, is widely known in the Old Northeast as the poodle lady who leads a pack of dogs on walks through the neighborhood alleys and parks. She is a foster parent to many dogs through her work with a poodle rescue network. She was on a walk when Pooh Bear, who is 15 and on various medications, disappeared.

"It's like the Earth swallowed my dog," Bonati said.

Bonati was out walking her dogs at about 5:45 a.m. on April 7, at the water fountain near the Vinoy Basin. She was cleaning up after one of her other dogs as Pooh Bear sniffed bushes nearby. When she went to corral the dogs and resume the walk, Pooh Bear was nowhere to be found.

She immediately searched near the sea wall, all the while knowing that Pooh Bear wouldn't like going across the wet grass toward the water.

Morning exercisers familiar with Bonati and her pack immediately set off in search of the dog, she said. But there was no sign of Pooh Bear, whom she had raised since she was a puppy.

And so it came that she enlisted everyone she could to help, eventually ending up with more than 600 fliers posted and even hiring a pet detective she read about in the Washington Post to help her find her beloved Pooh.

Now all she can do is offer the large reward and hope someone comes forward.

"I'm frantic," she said. "I don't have children. These are my children."

She said she'll pay the reward, no questions asked, if someone shows up with Pooh Bear. She explained how much it would mean to her, this little white ball of fur.

"I never thought she would die anyplace else but in my arms."

Anyone with information can call (813) 892-1865.