It was a Sunday when a concerned citizen notified Jason Cooke of Healthy Hearts and Paws Project that a senior Schnauzer had been found outside Mr. D’s Food Fair on Warren-Sharon Road in Brookfield.

By Monday, someone responded to Cooke’s “lost dog” social media post, certain that it was her stepfather’s dog. On the same day, William Metzinger came to collect the dog, and smiled as he posed for a picture taken by Cooke — reunited, it seemed.

That was around 9:30 a.m., Cooke said. At about 10:20 a.m. the Mahoning County Dog Warden found Dolly running loose on Meridian Road near Mahoning Avenue in Austintown ä a more than 20-minute drive away.

“At that point, I suspected what happened was that he had left here and then immediately left her at the corner of Meridian and Mahoning Avenue,” Cooke said. “The only reason he picked her up in the first place was because the stepdaughter notified him that somebody had found the dog, I believe.”

Metzinger, 75, of Merwin Chase Road, Brookfield, is now facing charges of abandoning animals and obstructing official business.

Read more in Sunday’s Vindicator.