By Bruce Barton

A good Samaritan’s tireless efforts to help a lost dog find its owner resulted in an extraordinarily happy reunion in Los Altos Hills last Thursday.

Sassi, a small 6-year-old Yorkshire terrier, was found in the middle of Page Mill Road the night before. The woman who found Sassi saw no identification on the dog. “She was a little dehydrated and she smelled of skunk,” said the woman, who declined to be identified. The woman took Sassi to Kindness Pet Hospital in Los Altos for observation, then contacted pet hospitals, the Humane Society and other authorities to find the owner.

Meanwhile, the Pavlina family of Los Altos Hills made similar calls to find Sassi. Julie Pavlina and mom Gini San Giorgio also contacted a neighborhood emergency coordinator who in turn e-mailed all the neighbors. Pretty soon, a good cross section of the community was aware of the lost dog.

The next day, Sassi’s savior took the morning off work to canvass the area where she found the dog.

She went door-to-door, talking with residents near the Palo Alto Country Club, and even visited the country club where the chef fed Sassi some ground beef.

Eventually, the persistent woman found a resident who remembered the e-mail about a lost dog.

The man retrieved the e-mail and called the Pavlinas. The woman said virtually all the people she talked with showed concern and wanted to help.

“Support from the four or five neighboring communities was overwhelming,” Pavlina said.

Both the Pavlinas and Sassi’s rescuer phoned the same authorities with descriptions of the dog, but for whatever reason, the agencies did not match descriptions.

“You’ve got to stay in touch all the time,” said Pavlina, whose son, Andreas San Giorgio, inherited the dog from his late aunt, Kathy Pavlina. “We didn’t get matched together and that can happen when you’re working in the abstract. But you’ve got to keep hope. Persistence on both ends is what won.”

Pavlina added, “We are so grateful to (Sassi’s) finder and are happy to give a donation to a cause that we mutually care about, the Los Altos Hills Open Space cause, which concerns Westwind Barn and Byrne Preserve.”

For Sassi’s finder, helping the dog was a natural thing to do because the woman said she came from a caring family that values animals, community and the environment.