A story about Guess, the 5 month old Schnauzer-poodle

Guess

I’m sure a lot of you have heard the story about Guess, the 5 month old Schnauzer-poodle that was in the news last month when the owner tried to ship him from Minneapolis to Georgia in an airtight box.  But in case you haven’t, I just had to write about him, especially since it turned out to be a happy ending.

Apparently Stacey Champion, the owner of Guess decided to ship him to Georgia as a gift for her 11-year-old son.  Employees at the Loring Station post office in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota knew something was amiss when a box waiting to be shipped to Georgia started to move by itself.  Then postal workers heard breathing coming from inside the box.  After some time, the breathing grew slower and less frequent.  That’s when US Postal Service Inspector Jesse Swanson gave permission to open the box.  To everyone’s surprise, there was a little black puppy inside.

Sealed box that Guess was being shipped in

It turns out that Stacey Champion of Minneapolis had packed the puppy in the box without any food or water and tried to mail it  to her son in Georgia as a birthday present. It’s not known whether Champion was aware that air mail is shipped on unheated cargo planes, but she certainly ought to have known better than to do what she did. The puppy would have certainly frozen to death or died of suffocation.

Stacey has lost ownership of the puppy and was charged with animal cruelty on Feb. 7th.  Guess was sent to the Minneapolis Animal Care and Control Shelter where he was put up for adoption.  Many people came to the shelter expressing an interest in adopting Guess.  Because of the high demand, the Humane Society held a lottery drawing to pick an owner.

Terri Ford of South Minneapolis was the lucky lottery winner and adopted Guess, one of about 50 who showed up to put their names into the drawing.  Ford says she’ll probably change his name and then ease him into his new life which he’ll share with a black cat named Mr. Danvers, named after a character in an Alfred Hitchcock film.

With his new owner Terri Ford

Good luck Guess!  And a special Thank You to the postal workers who took the time to investigate!