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Month: January 2013

Paranorman and The Missing Dog

Paranorman and The Missing Dog

[Updated on 5-3-2013 after contact with Potato’s owner]
I was watching Laika’s new movie Paranorman when I got a surprise.

Laika studios is based in Portland and the office is only 3 blocks from my house in our quiet little neighborhood.  I got about 10 minutes into the movie when our young protagonist Norman is walking down the street and passes a seemingly innocuous little sign:

You’ll notice poor Potato is missing.  And a $5000 reward. But would you be shocked if I told you this sign was hanging in our neighborhood about a year or two back:

[5-3-2013 update]  Actual owner of Potato saw this posting and said that poor Potato just went missing and has yet to be found.  It was not contractors, etc but I include that original posting here since that’s what I first heard.  If you’ve seen her, do drop him a note or post here.

[This original information was disproven by owner – more proof that even in a tight neighborhood you shouldn’t listen to what every ‘neighbor of’ or ‘friend of’ has said.]  Even more strange is the fact that I recently ran into folks in our neighborhood (who also owned a cute bulldog) that were friends with the owners of poor missing Potato and told the strange tale.  It seems that some contractors were working at the owner’s house over several days.  The day they finished, Potato went missing.  The owners plastered the neighborhood with signs and a $1000 reward.  Then $5000. 

The owners grew to suspected the contractors whose stories didn’t quite jive when asked about the last day of their work.  (Something similar happened to another house in our hood in which a house was ‘accidentally’ left unlocked on the last day the contractors were there. Right after the contractors left it was completely stripped in under 2 hours – even though it had set for weeks untouched.  Convenient huh?).  Apparently when the $5000 reward came out one of the contractors claimed that they came to work and Potato had fallen into the pool and died.  The contractors buried Potato ‘somewhere else’ to cover up the accidental death.  The owners were never convinced, and Potato never found.  The owners are convinced he was stolen by the contractors.  (Something I tend to agree with after a friend’s pug was stolen and only recovered when the family who took him was caught at a Petsmart when they ran the ID chip in him and it didn’t match.  The people weren’t even remorseful about it at all.  They were angry at the Petsmart guys and tried to forcibly take him back.)

If you have information about Potato, please post it here and the original owner should see it.