‘Incredible Reunion’

I read with interest your story about the incredible journey which united a doctor and his dog (Westside, Feb. 3). I don’t propose to get into a “can you top this” scenario but let me tell you about another incredible reunion.

In 1935 I had a black Belgian police dog which was one of the most intelligent animals I had ever come across. I could talk to her like a human being and she would understand what I was saying. I could go to a movie, leave the dog outside, unleashed, and she would sit there while I attended the entire performance.

One day, I went (to) downtown L.A., parked the car on Figueroa at 5th Street, and left the dog in the car with the window open, unleashed. I was gone for about 40 minutes. When I returned, Fritzi was not in the car. I hunted the neighborhood, drove up and down the streets, through various parking lots, but no Fritzi.

That was the latter part of April or the first part of May. At the time I was living on Sycamore Avenue and had an interest in a used-car lot nearby at 330 S. La Brea Ave. On July 5th, the mailman who delivered our mail both to the house and to the used-car lot came to the office of the lot and said, “Mr. Allen, your dog is in front of the house.” I rushed home and there was Fritzi on the front porch.

Eventually I found out what had happened. Apparently something attracted Fritzi and she jumped out of the car, but with all the cars moving about, couldn’t find her way back. A young man who saw the dog loose took Fritzi in tow. He owned a bar on Fairfax and Olympic, and kept the dog in the yard, which was fenced with an eight-foot-high fence. Fritzi hated firecrackers and, on the Fourth of July, they were shooting off firecrackers and she leaped the eight-foot fence and found her way back from Olympic and Fairfax to Sycamore, between 6th and 3rd streets.

She was a wonderful dog, had a great litter of pups, and I kept her until old age took her at the age of something like 16 or 17.

The article was a very wonderful article and I appreciate it very much.

ALBERT H. ALLEN

Beverly Hills