Yellow Lab Puppies Dognapped in Kentucky

A Kentucky-version of Cruella DeVille is suspected of swiping a litter of puppies and their mom - only this time they're 10 Yellow Labs instead of 101 Dalmations. And instead of turning them into coats, as the dastardly Disney character wanted to do, the owner of the purloined pooches suspects the thief plans to mate the pups with poodles to create Labradoodles.

"That's the kind of designer dog (President-elect) Obama is looking to get for his daughters," said Jeanne Lane of Gravel Switch, Ky. "I'm just sick with worry about the dogs."

Lane is the owner of Penn's Store, which claims to be the oldest country store in the country. She said the momma dog, Dixie, and the daddy dog, Boston, appeared on her doorstep one day last September and "we adopted them."

"We tried to find their owners and had no luck," Lane said. "So we took them in and built them a little shed behind the store. The customers loved them because they were so loving to everyone who came in." Dixie had her litter two weeks ago "and they were just the cutest, fattest little puppies," Lane said.

Then, last Wednesday, they vanished. Lane said she went to feed the dogs and noticed Boston's dog collar had been torn off and he was "looking so sad."

"Then I realized Dixie and the puppies were gone," she said. "I was heartbroken. But I knew they couldn't have gotten out by themselves and I knew they wouldn't have wandered off on their own." Lane said she called the sheriff and while she waited recalled recently receiving a call from a "pushy" woman who claimed to run a dog rescue operation in central Kentucky.

"She was telling me I let the Labs run loose and wasn't taking care of them," said Lane. "I told her I was taking good care of Dixie and Boston, but she kept insisting she could do a better job." Lane said she has shared her suspicions with the law. Boyle County Deputy Sheriff Derek Robbins is hot on the trail of that woman - and the missing Labs.

"I'm keeping Boston beside me all the time, because I don't want to lose him too," Lane said. "I really feel like I have a Cruella DeVille situation on my hands."

[Source: Daily News]