News

Buster is lost ... and found

Buster, a 4-pound teacup Chihuahua, was reunited with his family after 14 months.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 16, 2015

Janice Villalon had lived through enough heartache. She didn’t need to lose Buster, too.

Villalon and her children had to seek refuge at Mainstay, the domestic violence shelter, 14 months ago. Her mother had to look after Buster, a 4-pound teacup Chihuahua. One day Buster got out and ran away. He wasn’t wearing his collar.
“I called the Humane Society, I called the animal shelter — nothing,” Villalon said. “We looked for him and looked for him. I think he got picked up.”
She mourned the loss of her beloved Buster. She thought of him often.
“Wherever he is,” she would think, “I hope he’s being taken care of. But I never thought I’d get him back.”
Then one morning last month something amazing happened. To the people who saw it, it seemed nothing short of a miracle. A million accidents of time and space had to fall into place.
The next player in the universe of coincidence was Christine Schuurman, a member of a social and community volunteerism group called Hendersonville Fun Friends. A devoted shelter volunteer, she was asked to give a talk on the Blue Ridge Humane Society. The Hendersonville Fun Friends meeting was at the Dandelion, the café where Mainstay residents learn to cook, clean and wait tables. Villalon was on duty cooking.
Although dogs aren’t allowed, Schuurman and her sister, Jennifer McKinley, got permission to bring a pint-sized stray looking for his “forever home.” They knew him as Barney.
“As soon as they came in I saw that this lady had a dog in her hand so when I got close to her I realized that’s my dog,” Villalon said. “When I got near him he just looked at me, and he looked at me the whole time, wherever I went.”
No one was sure that the little dog they called Barney could be held. Truth be told, he wasn’t being that sweet.
“He was really grouchy,” Villalon said. “They said he tried to bite two people already.”
Then they decided to let Villalon hold the little Chihuahua.
“She handed him to me and Buster jumped into my arms,” she said. “He wouldn’t quit licking me. He was just so calm. He completely changed.”
She shared the joy with her children when she drove to the Humane Society shelter in Edneyville to pick up Buster.
“They couldn’t believe it,” she said of her children. “They were in shock. Even when we rode out to get
him they couldn’t believe it.” Her children thought maybe their mom was just trying to make them feel better. “I guess they thought it was a dog that looked like Buster,” she said. But when Buster came out, they had no doubt. It was like Christmas for
everybody.
“Kind and generous people pitched in to make sure that Janice would have all she needed to take Buster home,” Schuurman said in an email. “The Blue Ridge Humane Society donated  a collar, vest, bed, and crate, plus there were treats, food, toys and other
needed items.”
Schuurman marveled at how everything fell into place to reunite Buster and his family.
“What are the odds that on this particular day I would bring this little puppy from the shelter and she just happened to be there and I would just happen to be asked to be a guest speaker,” she said.
Schuurman walked in to the Dandelion with little “Barney,” thinking she would tell about how important it is to adopt the dogs and cats from the shelter. She didn’t know she would see Buster reunite with his family and go home forever.