John Calloway said he checked with every dog control officer and animal shelter.
AVON – John Calloway still had hope early Friday afternoon of finding his riding buddy Beau. The tan-redbone coonhound had been missing since Oct. 20.
But late Friday afternoon, Calloway’s hopes were dashed.
Beau was found dead by a neighbor mowing his lawn. The neighbor spotted Beau’s body about 8 feet in on Calloway’s sprawling land.
Calloway and his wife, Karen, had traveled to Long Island, N.Y., in mid-October for a memorial service for Karen’s mother, who recently died at Orchard Park in Farmington.
Beau had stayed behind with Calloway’s friend watching over him. The couple hadn’t been gone long, when Beau left his 2-acre fenced-in “playground.”
When the friend called Calloway to tell him what happened, Calloway said he wasn’t worried, Beau, a former bear dog, took off sometimes and came back later. He told his friend to leave the gate open because the dog would probably come back.
“I suspect he may have gone looking for us,” Calloway said.
The Calloways returned home a day later and began searching for Beau.
They took out “lost dog” ads in the newspaper. A friend made posters with a color photo of the dog that were distributed throughout Franklin County.
John Calloway said he checked with every dog control officer and animal shelter in Franklin County frequently to see if the 60-pound, 5-year-old dog had been spotted.
“People have been extremely kind,” Calloway had said prior to getting the bad news. He had at least six leads he pursued that didn’t pan out.
People were interested in helping the couple find the dog, Calloway said.
A couple of second-graders at Strong Elementary School where Karen Calloway teaches had even mentioned taking the missing dog posters out trick or treating to see if anyone had seen Beau.
Beau was a strong, athletic dog who could travel long distance, John Calloway said. He thought he could be anywhere between Portland and Jackman.
But he was extremely shy with strangers.
Calloway had found Beau and another dog three years ago and after making some calls to see if anyone had lost them, brought them to the county animal shelter to see if anyone claimed them.
The other dog was adopted right away, but not Beau. Calloway continued to visit Beau.
“I knew when I first saw him, I really wanted him,” Calloway said. “He was just the right dog.”
When nobody claimed him, Calloway took him home.
Calloway and Beau became good buddies. Calloway, a retired teacher and Avon selectmen, took the dog everywhere with him.
He even sat or slept through selectmen’s meetings while Calloway attended to business.
“People accept me, they have to accept the dog,” Calloway said.
Calloway laughed when he shared a story.
He said he pulled up to the Post Office one day and looked around as he and Beau sat in the truck. There were several other pickup trucks there, he said, all with dogs in them.
“I knew then I had entered the world of geezerism,” he said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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