A dog dodges death row

Under quarantine since last June,he had disappeared at times once when the city hid him in the basement of a firehouse. There was talk of a plot to have someone kidnap him. And there were accusations of intimidation and official corruption. In the town of Salem,Missouri,four-year-old Phineas became a running soap opera.

Then two weeks ago he vanished. Enter the lanky man with the fake beard,who appeared at the home of Phineass owners,claiming to have the answer. But thats getting ahead of the story.

Phineas had been a part of the Sanders family since 2010,a gift from a friend. They named him after a character from the cartoon Phineas and Ferb.

His journey to becoming a household name began on a sunny Friday afternoon in late June 2012. Lexie Sanders,seven years old at the time,was in her backyard with two friends.

Lexie tripped while clutching the cable that tethered Phineas. The next thing she knew,she said,her friend,Kendall Woolman,had fallen and rolled beneath the high-sprung Chevy pickup truck in the driveway. Kendall screamed and cried.

Lexie said she did not see Phineas bite Kendall,but the other friend told the police that she saw him bite her and drag her about four feet.

The Salem mayor,Gary Brown,deemed Phineas a vicious dog under town ordinance,and ordered him euthanised. The dogs execution was delayed by a court appeal and there was a brief,unexplained disappearance last fall but then reinstated in March by Judge Scott Bernstein. City officials moved Phineas to a secret location it turned out to be the basement garage bay at the fire station.

Supporters got in touch with the Lexus Project,a dog rescue operation based in New York state. The group set up a Save Phineas Facebook page and was the catalyst behind billboards along an interstate highway.

Kendall Woolmans family said they received threats. Joseph P Simon,a lawyer for the Sanders family,accused a relative of the Woolmans of threatening to exert his influence to make sure Phineas died.

Approaching his execution date in late April,Phineas got another stay when Simon appealed for a new trial.

In May,city officials moved Phineas into Dr Tunes veterinary office near downtown,but the doctor said he feared that the dog would be stolen.

On October 12,Phineas was nowhere to be found.

Concern festered for days,until a rainy night,the day before the latest court hearing to decide Phineass fate. The mystery man appeared at the Sanderss door,asking for them by name.

I just want to tell you, he said,that Phineas is doing fine. The man explained that he had seen a billboard and read about the case. He snatched Phineas and took him to a safe place,the man told them,his fake moustache slipping down his face.

He asked them to set up a safe house. He asked them to activate a landline,and when they had the safe house ready,they were to post the sentence,I saw a dog today that reminded me of Phineas,on the Facebook page. That would be his signal.

Amber Sanders posted the message,and the man called two nights later.

Yet in a final twist,on October 25,Bernstein overturned the death sentence.

The man,wearing his fake beard,arrived at the drop point in a rural patch surrounded by dirt roads,and when an intermediary told him Sanderses were on their way,he left Phineas and said,Well,Ive got to go.

Minutes later,Salems most popular dog was bounding into his owners arms.