If dogs could talk: How did a Polish pup end up in the Summit County dog pound?

Most pet owners would sacrifice quite a lot to make their furry friend capable of speech.

But for one local dog, that ability could solve the mystery of her past – something that has eluded Summit County Animal Control, area veterinarians and animal welfare volunteers spanning three countries.

The dog in question is a 5-year-old German shepherd who, as far as anyone knows, has gone by at least three names: Tess, Paczki and Zoey. To start off, we'll call her Paczki, the name that helped her garner the attention of nearly 2,000 people on social media.

How Paczki got her name: 'I was hungry, and she was Polish’

Summit County Animal Control found Paczki moseying around the Akron facility's parking lot on Dec. 29. This was most unusual, as wandering animals typically steer clear of the facility, according to Carrie Goffee, animal control’s office manager. The fact that Paczki was on the property, coupled with her good physical condition, make it possible that she was dumped on the doorstep.

The facility is seeing an influx of surrendered and dumped animals because people can’t afford their pet’s food or medical needs, a trend that local rescues have also experienced.

“Strays before used to be real thin,” said Goffee. “You could tell they were real dirty, they’d been out for a while, long nails, ear infections, different things. But a lot of the dogs we’re getting now – they were in someone’s home and they were in someone’s home recently.”

After bringing her inside, Paczki was scanned for a microchip. One was found, but its contents sent the staff and other animal lovers on a wild goose chase fit for a Labrador retriever. The chip reader’s glowing screen showed:

• Country: POL

• 616093900356799

Normally, a microchip would also display the phone number of the registry for the brand of chip. Once scanned, that registry can be contacted to get an owner’s name and phone number.

With only a registration number and mystery acronym to go on, animal control workers reached out to five well-known microchip companies across the U.S. and Canada – Banfield, HomeAgain, Petstablished, Save This Life and SmartTag – who told them that the chip was implanted overseas. After further research, the staff realized that the abbreviation "POL" as well as the first three ID numbers meant that implantation happened in Poland.

Summit County Animal Control still needed something to call the dog, so registered veterinary technician Rhonda Kesek named her Paczki after the popular Polish doughnuts served before Lent.

“I was hungry, and she was Polish,” Kesek explained.

Both Kesek and Goffee cannot recall encountering an international microchip in their combined 55 years in the animal welfare industry. The same goes for Tanya Jonda, the executive director of One of A Kind Pet Rescue, and Amy Moore, a registered veterinary technician and practice manager at the Veterinary Wellness Center of Green.

“It’s interesting because someone at some point really cared about the dog and probably paid a substantial amount of money to get the dog here…which is kind of what’s weird about it,” Goffee said.

Next, workers searched overseas microchip companies like International Pet Registry, Europetnet, Safe-Animal and microchip search tool PetMaxx. Once again, they came up emptyhanded.

Goffee took to the internet in hopes that someone would recognize Paczki and be able to reunite her with a previous owner or provide some insight into her past.

At this point, everyone involved in the search speculated that she may have been bred and chipped in Poland and then brought to the states by another breeder, U.S. military member or a local pet owner who simply wanted a Polish-bred German shepherd.

Animal control calls for backup investigating Paczki's past

In the meantime, animal control decided to call in the cavalry – a woman by the name of Noreen Goble.

While Goble is not associated with Summit County Animal Control, she is a volunteer with Maggie's Mission Dog and Horse Rescue, a foster-based rescue based out of Wadsworth. Goffee reached out to her because the she has had success getting information about dead-end microchips in her 26 years of volunteering.

At the time, Goble was in Ireland visiting family. Her sister is involved with animal rescue in Ireland and happened to have some Polish friends living in the country. Those friends reached out to their friends in Poland who ran the chip through various microchip registries there. Ultimately, the chip came back as unregistered, which makes tracking down a previous owner extremely difficult.

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“Oftentimes, we can trace the chip back to the manufacturer and then backtrack from there and find out where it was implanted, such as a vet’s office or a shelter, and then track down the owner from there,” Goble said. “But unfortunately, we reached out to the manufacturer of the chip and they were unresponsive, so it ultimately became a dead end. If the chip had been registered at some point, we would have had a lot more information to work with.”

Goble also reached out to Jeanette Garlow, who runs the Midwest branch of Lost Dogs of America’s Microchip Hunters, a nonprofit organization that helps reunite missing pets with their owners. Less than 1 % of the microchips Garlow tracks down are from countries outside of the United States.

Garlow discovered the chip’s manufacturer was Realtrace, which is affiliated with Atria, another manufacturer. After reaching out to both companies, Atria responded and suggested she contact Geulincx, a manufacturer in Poland. The website for Geulincx had no information on how to contact them and became another dead end.

Garlow also had the registration code run through the military’s database, which would tell them if the dog had seen a veterinarian on a U.S. military base, to no avail.

The Beacon Journal reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to see if they had records of Paczki’s journey from Poland.

“We checked with the CDC and according to their permit system there is no record of this dog entering Chicago O’Hare International Airport or any other Port of Entry, which the animal would have traveled through to arrive in the country,” Steven Bansbach, one of their regional press officers, said in an email. “Since Poland is a low-risk rabies country the importer would not need a CDC dog import permit to bring the dog into the US.”

Possible glimpse into Paczki the Polish dog's past

Animal Control’s Facebook post generated nearly 2,000 shares and more than 100 comments, a few of which were by Sheila Needham, who says her ex-boyfriend was once the dog’s owner. Along with her comment, she posted a photo of a German shepherd that looks like Paczki and has the same small scar on its nose.

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According to Needham, her ex-boyfriend purchased the dog from a breeder in Columbus who had purchased Paczki for $3,200. Back then, she was called Tess, a name that she still responds to, animal control confirmed.

She said Paczki was used for breeding and that the small scar on her nose is from one of her previous owners, who often kept her caged.

“She warmed up to me pretty fast and was the sweetest,” Needham said. “As with any animal you have to take precautions regardless of history. My opinion is she's great but [I] would be careful of small pets and use common sense.”

Needham told animal control that her ex-boyfriend only had Paczki for about a week before rehoming her to an elderly woman who lived near the Akron Zoo.

Paczki begins new life with new family, takes another name

Despite the neglect she may have faced in the past, it looks like Paczki’s tale may have a happy ending.

The German shepherd was adopted by Meghan and Jordan Gruelle of Wadsworth on Jan. 27.

Jordan had always wanted a German shepherd and the couple had filled out four or five adoption applications over the past year, but each time they decided that it wasn’t the best time to get a third dog or the dog they applied for didn’t end up being the right fit. That is until they met Paczki, whom they’ve since renamed Zoey.

“We pretty much fell in love with her as soon as we saw her,” Jordan said. He added that the decision to adopt her wasn’t final until they’d introduced her to their 2-year-old son and one of their other dogs and they all got along.

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While giving her a bath, the Gruelles noticed physical signs that Zoey had birthed at least one litter of puppies sometime in her life. The family suspect that she was used for breeding and plan to take her back to animal control soon to have her spayed.

They still haven’t heard their new family member bark or make any other noise but said she is adjusting well.

“It’s amazing, you get some good food and water in her and give her a nice bath and a warm bed – it’s like a new dog,” Jordan said. “She found one of our other dog’s beds and it was like the first time she has ever laid on a bed – she loves it. I think each day she’s gotten more and more comfortable. She’s learning how to be a dog.”

Contact Beacon Journal reporter Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com and on Twitter @TawneyBeans.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: German shepherd with Polish roots ends up in Summit County