Alexander Humphreys
Detail from poster for missing JP dog Taupaw
There's a happy ending to a Jamaica Plain man's search for his missing dog-wolf hybrid. Taupaw, a Dutch Wolfhound, went missing Thursday night and, according to owner Alexander Humphreys, had been making tracks all over Boston and Brookline. Humphreys and the U.S. Coast Guard disagreed on whether or not it was Taupaw photographed on the ice of Quincy Bay.
According to Missing Dogs Massachusetts, which had been publicizing Taupaw in an online poster, Boston Animal Control found the dog at a construction site in Dorchester.
Humphreys filled Jamaica Plain News on the details of the reunion. Animal Control called him Monday while he was on a snow removal job in Melrose, to report they'd seen a dog that looked like his. Humphreys had to finish the job, but drove his truck as soon as he could to the Dorchester site where his dog had likely been seen. He called to the dog and it was indeed Taupaw. Humphreys said the two ran to meet each other for a joyous reunion.
"It was one of the happiest moments of my life," he said.
The original "missing" poster said the dog was "photographed on the ice in Quincy Bay" on Feb. 27. But the Coast Guard reports via Facebook they took that photo on Feb. 20, long before Taupaw went missing.
Humphreys previously told Jamaica Plain News that he'd heard three different stories from people aboard that Coast Guard ship.
"I don't have confidence [in the Coast Guard's story]," the Hyde Square man told Jamaica Plain News on Sunday.
He said the animal in the Coast Guard photo had Taupaw's markings and tail.
Humphreys offers this timeline:
- Taupaw goes missing from Newmarket Square in Roxbury about 10 p.m. Thursday.
- Friday he's spotted in the harbor (Coast Guard says it's a coyote)
- Friday about 3:30 p.m. a coyote is spotted near MLK School. On closer examination, the "coyote" has a collar. Humphreys thinks that was Taupaw.
- Saturday about 4:30 p.m. a sighting of a dog like Taupaw was made near the old JP High School on Elm Street in Sumner Hill.
- On Sunday, a couple reported seeing a dog like Taupaw in a cemetery behind Woodland Road in Brookline.
Here's a map of the possible land sightings: