From the archives: LI dog kicks around the city for 10 days

This story was originally published in Newsday on November 26, 2003

Morgan is home for good.

The 8-year-old black and white lab mix from Port Jefferson Station has returned from an odyssey throughout Manhattan and the Bronx that would have put Ulysses to shame.

Parts of the 10-day journey, which animal shelter officials say included a night in the park with a homeless woman and being tied to a utility pole by a boy in Hell's Kitchen, are almost impossible to verify.

Workers at Save-A-Pet adoption center in Port Jefferson Station spent days in the city searching for him with Morgan's favorite hot dog meat in hand, making phone calls - even seeking help from an animal psychic. "Morgan told me he was moving around quite a bit, having a good time," said the psychic, Karen Wrigley, of Huddleston, Va. "He didn't tell me where he was going."

But according to interviews with several people who crossed Morgan's path, this much is known.

On Oct. 26, Morgan, a well-mannered creature who spent his days visiting seniors at a Port Jefferson seniors' facility, was adopted from Save-A-Pet by a Manhattan woman.

On Nov. 10, the woman, who could not be reached yesterday, was exercising Morgan in Riverside Park when he jumped a 3-foot high dog fence. "Morgan said good-bye," said Dori Scofield, co-director of Save-A-Pet, who explained that the 55-pound hound has separation anxiety. Morgan had been living at the adoption center for almost two years.

Jennifer Burgoyne of the Upper West Side found him wandering near West 93rd street in the park a short while later, and took him home. But she already had three miniature terriers whom Morgan did not get along with. So she took him back to the park.

"He was such a beautiful dog," Burgoyne said last night. "If I didn't have any dogs, I would have kept him."

A week later, Burgoyne saw a flier Save-A- Pet staffers had put up, and called Scofield.

Meanwhile, a Hell's Kitchen boy found Morgan and took him home. But after two nights, his mother told him Morgan had to go.

So on Nov. 18, the heartbroken boy tied him to a utility pole outside his apartment on West 50th Street and 9th Avenue, where dog and boy encountered a homeless woman. The homeless woman took the dog to a nearby park for the night, then the next day brought him to an animal hospital, whose employee called Beth Silberg, president of Stray from the Heart on the Lower East Side.

Silberg immediately placed Morgan with a Bronx woman. But that night, she received an e-mail that Scofield had sent to every animal rescue contact she had in her Rolodex.

Silberg called Scofield. Yes, the dog has a chipped tooth. Yes, the dog has a shiny black tail with a white tip.

And thus, last Thursday, Morgan was returned to Port Jefferson Station.

"This is his home and we're not going to adopt him out anymore," Scofield said, adding the original adoptee in Manhattan no longer wants him.

Morgan was the center of attention yesterday at the Port Jefferson Health Care Facility, where two dozen seniors formed a circle around him in the recreation room. Now that he's back for good, officials said, Morgan plans to spend even more time at the facility where he has run of the house, visiting rooms and riding the elevator.

"I'm glad he's back," said Frances Shum, 83, a resident of the home. Dogs "know where their home is."