Richmond mayor-elect's dogs retrieved after midnight stroll on Chevron property
By Rick Hurd rhurd@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted:   12/23/2014 02:12:55 PM PST0 Comments | Updated:   77 min. ago
RICHMOND -- When his phone rang in the middle of the night, Richmond mayor-elect Tom Butt braced for the worst. But the news from the Chevron Fire Department battalion chief was far better than calls at 2 a.m. typically bring.
"He said, 'We have your dogs,'" Butt said.

Rosie and Tess were safe and sound, and well-exercised as it turned out. Butt's two Labrador retrievers had managed to sneak away from his fenced-in backyard on East Scenic Drive sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday. They wandered at least a mile-and-a-half to the Long Wharf, slipping through security at the city's Chevron plant along the way.

"I have a combination lock on that (backyard) fence, too," Butt said. "But when I left to go get them, the gate was open. I've got to check into that fence."

That may be an understatement. Nearly four years ago, another dog somehow slipped inside Butt's fence and chased one his sheep onto a steep 300-foot cliff in Point Richmond. Firefighters rappelled down the cliff and rescued it.

No such heroics were needed this time around, and Butt was reunited with his canines -- Rosie, 11, and Tess, 1 -- at Chevron Firehouse No. 60 shortly after receiving the call.
"They're just fine, fortunately," he said. "You know, somebody left the gate to the fence open (Monday), and they'd gotten out. So we decided to have them stay in the house last night. They have a doggy door, so at some point I guess they decided to use it. They must've found the gate open and decided to take a stroll."
Both dogs are licensed and tagged, making it easy for fire crews to find their owner. According to Butt, fire officials were able to corral the dogs without difficulty.
"You know, they'd get out last year and go to to the Miller Knox (Regional Shoreline) to hang out at the park, so I got a GPS tracking device for them," Butt said. "Normally, it gives an alert whenever the dogs get out and tell you where they are. It's a great gadget, but I must've been sleeping so soundly that I never heard it."
But said that's not the only piece of equipment he's used to keep tabs on his dogs.
"We've used what's called a collar cam, too," he said. "It's a small camera that attached to the collar and takes pictures and that's supposed to help with keeping track of them."
Alas, as Butt said, two labs with a bunch of energy are not so easily contained.
"I'm really thankful to the guys on graveyard shift over there for finding them and keeping them safe," he said. At least, it all turned out OK."
Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rderh