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Payton’s place

Dog’s adventure ends paw-fectly for McDonald family

WARREN — Thanks to the help of a team of good Samaritans at the ArcelorMittal coke plant in Warren, 12-year-old chocolate lab Payton is back with his owner, Mary Ellen Ross of McDonald.

It was on April 24 when Joe Magni, ArcelorMittal Warren Operations manager, got a call from his byproducts manager, Dave Stowe, letting him know a dog was in the engine room.

“We were kind of disappointed because we didn’t know what the fate of the dog was going to be,” Magni said. “We didn’t think it was going to end well.”

Stray dogs occasionally get into the facility, and sometimes have to be put down.

“Our plants aren’t equipped for animals. It’s really not a good place for dogs. So there’s obviously hazards that would pose danger to an animal being in here,” Magni said.

Michael Paterson, the plant manager of health and safety, fetched a dog leash he keeps in his car for his own dog, and tried to remove the chocolate lab from the engine room. The skittish dog jumped up and trotted away, Paterson said. He didn’t think it was a problem in the large, industrial room, but then he realized the doors were open.

The dog took off, leading the determined Paterson and Stowe on a mile-long chase.

“We basically chased the dog all the way through the plant,” Paterson said. He said for a 12-year-old dog, it was a pretty “high speed” chase. Eventually, the dog was cornered and decided to lie down. Paterson and Stowe realized then that this dog wasn’t a stray.

“It’s got a collar and it walked better than my dog on a leash,” Paterson said.

Manager of human resources Cindy Costantino saw Paterson and Stowe with the dog, and went to work posting his picture on Facebook. Magni checked the Youngstown Lost and Found Facebook page and soon enough discovered a post about Payton.

The ArcelorMittal team gave Payton some chicken noodle soup and a comfy spot in the conference room while they tried to make contact with Ross, who was busy at work doing online tutoring.

At that point, Payton had been missing 12 days. Ross was working with a dog catcher from Columbus and had family, friends and co-workers keeping their eyes peeled.

Payton had been sighted a few times here or there, and even was seen dangerously crossing Interstate 80. Ross said the family thought it was not going to end well — or had already ended — for old Payton.

When Ross finally saw the messages on her phone, she was amazed: Payton had been found 10 miles from her McDonald home.

Payton had been spotted the day before by a night employee at ArcelorMittal, meaning he likely hunkered down in the warm engine room overnight.

Ross said she is extremely grateful that despite having a plant to run, the ArcelorMittal team took the time to chase down what they thought was a stray dog, and then to put in the effort to find his owners.

“That was just such a time of need for our family,” Ross said, adding the ArcelorMittal team really came through for the family.

Now, Payton is sitting comfortably, already adjusted to being back at home with the Ross family.

Payton lost 10 percent of his body weight and got blisters on his paws during his time away from home, but is otherwise in great health, Ross said.

Payton’s return struck many as much-needed good news in a stressful time. Ross said when she updated her Facebook post that Payton had been found, it received hundreds of comments.

“Strangers commented that they cried,” Ross said.

Magni said Payton brought a “well-needed” distraction.

“At the end of the day a lot of us got involved. It didn’t impact our operations from running, but it made our day better,” Magni said. “We all left out of here that Friday feeling good.”

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