Dog’s Tale Wags Happily Ever After

For months, the handsome young hunting dog ran wild in the woods between Spanaway and Roy, fearful of strangers, her puppy-size collar tightening around her neck.

She ran from those who left her food when they got too close. She eluded animal-control officers, some trying to rescue her on their own time.

She ran for at least nine months. In January, she became a celebrity, with newspaper, radio and television reports about her plight, but her owner never came forward.

She was dubbed the “Roy Y dog” because she frequented the Y-shaped area near Roy between Washington highways 7 and 507 south of Spanaway.

Now, finally, she has a home. And a name.

Diana and Tony Crimi, who live in the Roy area, caught her in a net on Tuesday and welcomed her to their house. They call her Brandy.

“It’s a miracle she wasn’t killed,” Diana Crimi said. “It’s such a happy ending. All she needed is someone to touch her and love her.”

Brandy is alert, curious, active, gentle - and very affectionate, the Crimis report.

And she is healthy except for a neck infection and a pink scar where the collar used to be. The electronic shock collar was like those often worn by hunting dogs in field trials. Diana and others believe Brandy fled from a field-trial area nearby.

Diana Crimi worked for months to gain the dog’s trust.

By October, she was feeding Brandy daily, but the dog would wait in the brush and eat only after she left. Crimi tried to use food to lure Brandy into a humane cage trap, but those efforts failed.

This week, Tony Crimi rigged a camouflage net. He waited three hours in a tree Tuesday before Brandy came to eat. Then he pulled the net up.

The frantic dog nearly wriggled free, but the couple spoke to her gently, called her a good girl, “and she just laid down. She was tired,” Diana Crimi said.

After that, she said, the dog jumped into the Crimis’ truck and slept in her lap all the way home.

They’ve received scores of calls from dog-lovers and well-wishers, Crimi said.