Luckily For Her Lost Dog, He Was Microchipped. Also, Vanessa Williams' Credo: Never Give Up.

Hear Steve's interview with Vanessa Williams

            “I never thought it would happen to me,” says Grammy Award winner Vanessa Williams, star of “Ugly Betty” on ABC. This past Memorial Day, she went to take her son to march in a parade. She returned from her short trip to find Enzo, her Yorkshire Terrier, missing from her home in Chappaqua, NY.

            Los Angeles-based veterinarian Dr. Jeff Werber says Williams isn’t alone, “There are over 10 million pets who become lost every year; everyone thinks it will never happen to them. Greater than 90 per cent don’t have a form of identification and will never be reunited with their families.”

            Immediately Williams posted a reward for Enzo’s safe return. Local police suggested a hawk or eagle might have snatched her little dog. However, Williams says she had noticed a suspicious car parked near her home around the time that Enzo disappeared. She was pretty sure the dog was taken.

            “What worried me is what he may have been taken for,” she says. “People told me how little dogs were taken for bait (for dog fighters), or maybe that Enzo was marked some sort of ransom.”

            Williams had a platform most pet owners don’t – and began to do interviews asking for the safe return of her puppy, promising that she will not press charges and will ask no questions upon her dog’s safe return. “I also pointed out that because Enzo’s microchopped, eventually we’d find him.”

            Enzo was recovered eight days later in Stafford, CT – the next state over – not exactly in the neighborhood. Williams isn’t sure what motivated the criminals to take her dog in the first place. But because another dog was snatched from the general neighborhood at around the same time, a local newspaper in Chappaqua suggested a dognapping ring. Williams said the kidnappers returned the reward money, and – as promised – she never prosecuted.

“I was so lucky that, in fact, he was microchipped,” she says. “I am sure the fact that he was microchipped was the reason he returned home again.”

            Enzo was in good shape, perhaps better shape than frazzled family members. “It was like a death in the family,” says Williams. “We were heartbroken. Between praying, putting up posters, searching the neighborhood and searching the Internet – the anguish was remarkable.”

            Werber says most stolen or lost dog stories don’t have similar happy endings. Often lost and even stolen dogs ultimately do land at a facility, but they can’t be identified because their ID tags have been lost or taken. Luckily, some animal shelters, animal control officers and sometimes police departments and veterinary offices use a scanner to ‘read’ a microchip which serves as a permanent ID which can not be lost or taken.

            One microchip company, HomeAgain (www.homeagain.com) goes above and beyond to help families recover their pets. Werber explains, “It’s called the Proactive Recovery System. There’s a 24/7 hotline. You can call anytime if the pet is lost. HomeAgain offers on-call support by trained counselors to assist in your pet’s recovery. They (HomeAgain) send alerts to local shelters and veterinary hospitals, and they even have their own team of volunteers who will help to hang posters and canvass the area. I know firsthand from when my cat got out (that) there are services like this, but they typically charge $400 to $500; this is only a part of a program for $14.99 – it’s a no- brainer.”

            Werber says he’s baffled as to why more pets aren’t microchipped. In fact, most pets are not microchipped. During the recent California fires – lots of animals – cats especially – were separated from their families. “Animals who were microchipped were reunited, others maybe not,” Werber says.

            One objection to microchipping derives from a recent report in the popular press that microchips have caused cancer in lab animals. “In my practice and my fellow veterinarians, we’re talking many, many hundreds of thousands of pets microchipped, and none of us has seen a reaction,” states Werber. “I have no doubt whatsoever the threat of cancer – if there is even one – is not nearly as great as the pet needing a microchip for identification in an emergency.”

            Williams adds, “The call came with the words ‘we scanned him, and we have Enzo.’ That call never would have happened without a microchip.”

            Williams’ career has been all about perseverance, longer before she persevered to search for her dog when other would have given up. Her parents were music teachers, and she sang from the time she was very young. She learned to play piano, French horn and violin. By high school she discovered she really wanted was to be an actress. She attended Syracuse University with a Presidential Scholarship in Drama.

            For extra money, some aspiring singers and actresses wait tables, Williams entered beauty contests. By 1983 – she worked her way up to the Miss America Pageant. She won, becoming the first African American to win the crown. Viewers know watching the “talent” on beauty pageants is often like seeing clips of the old Gong Show. Williams impressed the judges, the audience and record labels singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

            Immediately, Williams’ win ignited surprising controversy. Some actually said she wasn’t “black” enough because of her light skin. After fending off those questions, public commentary became far worse when Bob Guccione of Penthouse (magazine) revealed that two years earlier – as a college freshman, Williams had posed nude. Williams relinquished her crown, the scholarship money that came with it, endorsement deals, and what seemed like a promising career.

            Or not. “I never lost my talent,” she says today. She never lost her steely determination.

            Williams may be a whole lot nicer than Wilhelmina Slater, the conniving and cut-throat she plays on “Ugly Betty” who is always determined to get her way. It seems Williams might be the same way.

            “That’s a nice parallel,” she says. “Wilhelmina is very determined and so am I. I’ve been able to do a lot and have been able to excel and achieve at exactly what I’ve wanted to my whole life. “

            When everyone said her career had ended before it really began, Williams simply kept on going. And she hasn’t stopped. Arguably, few in show business have excelled in so many ways, nominated for 15 Grammy Awards; not to mentioning winning in 1995 for Best Song written for a Motion Picture or Television for “Colors of the Wind,” which also won an Oscar for the Best Song for a Motion Picture. In 2002. she was nominated for the Tony Award Best Performance By a Leading Actress In a Musical for “Into the Woods.” She also appeared on Broadway in “Kiss of a Spider Woman.” And she was nominated for an Emmy in “Ugly Betty” for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy.

            “Ugly Betty” is a comedy but Williams says the show is more. “It’s about not fitting into specific circumstances, and feeling like an outsider,” she says. “It’s something people can relate to. I think everyone in the cast has had some situation where they feel they don’t fit in. The writing is fantastic. I hope and believe there’s a lesson to be learned each week.”

            Actually, she first turned down the part. Her father had just passed away, and she knew she had commitments outside the country. “Then I got a call the night before they were supposed to shoot. They said, ‘we really need you, you were our first choice.’ So, I wound up shooting the pilot in New York. When we were told the series is a go, but we’ll have to move to Los Angeles, I said, ‘I can’t do it. I have four kids in New York.’ But my kids said, ‘Listen mom to go L.A. and do this role. You’re perfect for it.”

            Wilhelmina is as conniving as any character ever on TV. Were her kids trying to say something? She laughs. “Maybe, my kids certainly know me (there are four and they range from 7 to 20 years).

            Riding the “Ugly Betty” and Wilhelmina wave, she says her next CD will have “attitude and sass.” With luck, that CD will be out around summer.

            It seems, at only 44, Williams has already done it all, roles in movies, TV, Broadway and as a successful recording artist. Next she says there may be a book. “It could be memoirs, or a themed book, who knows – maybe even a book about my dogs.”

            Williams is currently single. She was married to her one-time manager Ramon Harvey, and then to former NBA star Rick Fox. For keeping eyes on the prize, and excelling, persevering when others doubted, Williams is honored happy to be a role model. “You don’t ask to be a role model. But when people use your life as an example, you are.”

©Steve Dale, Tribune Media Services