Like all great escape artists, Pharaoh, a 9-year-old German shepherd can escape from anything. That includes a cage at a Hauppauge veterinary clinic, a back door, an exterior gate, and eluding police.
According to veterinarian Dr. Robert Rowman, Pharaoh somehow got out of his cage and was spotted on surveillance video wandering around the Hauppauge Animal Hospital after recovering from surgery to remove a testicular tumor.
The video shows Pharaoh standing on his hind legs, putting his paws on a doorknob, opening the door and wandering outside. Not caught on video includes Pharaoh’s escape through an exterior gate, as well as eluding police who responded to a silent security alarm triggered by his jailbreak. The police did not see the dog escaping.
The clinic and the dog’s owner, Caren Curti, notified local shelters, police and even postal carriers as they searched for the 75-pound, black-and-tan dog.
Eventually Pharaoh was found, still wearing his plastic cone collar, in Smithtown’s Blydenburgh County Park by a dog walker headed toward the park’s dog run.
But Curti said she doesn’t believe her dog escaped without being let out by someone’s oversight. “They’re definitely negligent,” she said, adding that she does not plan to file legal action if Pharaoh recovers.