Last week I was at a meeting of the event’s sponsor, the George Rogers Clark Heritage Association (GRCHA), when I happened to witness something pretty cool that happened last week.
At the Fair at New Boston, those of us in costume, or more accurately “time period correct attire”, must have on our person at all times a medallion that proves we are registered participants. These medallions change every year and resemble pet identification tags. We pin them under collars, or wear these around our necks, carry them in our pockets, or wear them on strings of yarn or leather around our necks. They just have to be out of sight. The tag says “Fair at New Boston” and the date. These are prized keepsakes for long time participants.
Last Wednesday, Alice Dayhoff-Miller, GRCHA treasurer, told us of a telephone call the office had received about one of those little Fair tags from 2016 being found in Florida on the collar of a lost dog. It looked like an Anatolian Shepherd puppy.
That is right. The Fair at New Boston “people” medallion was found on a dog’s collar in Florida and someone named Anna called GRCHA after finding us on the Internet.
Well, this was awkward. We had no idea why the tag was in Florida or why it was on a dog. We don’t allow anyone to have a dog at the Fair at New Boston.
Of course, this presented a great mystery. Dayhoff-Miller and another board member Lynn Slowden, both dog lovers, took it upon themselves to find the pup’s owner. We all wished them luck in finding that needle in a haystack 1000 miles away in Florida.
Over the next day these ladies posted the information on Facebook pages, and made phone calls. They checked our registration books for any participant in the 2016 Fair at New Boston who lived in Florida. That took awhile to find since we have hundreds of registered participants in the Fair each year. None of them had a puppy.
Then they checked with our entertainers and vendors. Many of the professional entertainers we hire each year, go south to perform in outdoor events during the winter. Merchants also like to extend their season setting up in warmer climes.
Finally Pat Richardson, one of the delightful pair of performers in “Common Stock” called to say he was at an event and had heard talk about a lost puppy. He got the information and called back.
It seems that a 2016 participant from the northern Midwest had an Anatolian Shepherd puppy which was being trained to be a service dog. While the family was on vacation, driving through Ocala, in central Florida the pup made her escape. The owners searched for a long time and eventually left contact information with the police.
However, the pup didn’t know it had to stay where it was lost and had wandered into an adjacent area where the police didn’t know.
To make this story from getting too long and complicated, suffice it to say Dayhoff-Miller facilitated the efforts of the owner and the finder across 250 miles to get the puppy home.
And Slowden and Dayhoff-Miller are enjoying their success in finding a needle in a haystack.
Hopefully the pup will soon be old enough for its own real tags and maybe one of those implanted electronic tags too.
Moral of the story is that pet identification tags are important, folks. Don’t let your pup leave home without one.
And please don’t use a participation medallion. Trying to find two needles in two haystacks just might be impossible.
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