Happy ending for dog story and the power of the media

I was glad to see this story in this morning's Chicago Tribune (I think registration might be required, and the link will probably expire).

To quickly sum up: In yesterday's column, John Kass wrote about a Chicago lawyer who found a dog while in Florida. He brought the dog home to Chicago and refused to give it back to the family who owned it, which included a heartbroken 7 year old boy. I vividly recall how it felt when my family's dog escaped the backyard when I was a kid, and it wasn't much fun.

The family managed to get in touch with the man and tried to get the dog back. They resorted to calling the police. The lawyer refused. The family even tried contacting the firm where he worked. No luck. All in all, a depressing story to read first thing in the morning.

Well, apparently a great many people responded to yesterday's column. According to Kass's column today, readers called the man's law firm "in such numbers that you swamped the office phones and panicked the secretaries and apparently blew out the computer server with angry anti-lawyer e-mails."

The family got their dog back.

Pretty impressive. I hope the lawyer in question is feeling remose right now.