John and Karen Johnson on Friday thank Butch, a 3-year-old boxer that found Johns lost wedding ring at Wilmingtons Canby Park.(Photo: DANIEL SATO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)
Friday the 13th was lucky for John and Karen Johnson of Wilmington.
"And just in time for Valentine's Day," said Kenneth W. Boulden Jr., New Castle County clerk of the peace, who typically spends the designated romance day performing weddings.
The Johnsons' luck focused on the husband's gold wedding band, on his hand since they said "I do," nearly 20 years ago. Toward the end of last month, however, he noticed the ring was gone.
He figured it fell into a crack in the couch. "I tore the house apart," said his wife, who deep-cleaned for an exhaustive search.
No ring.
Meanwhile, a little more than a week ago, Tom Parvis of Wilmington was walking a friend's dog at Canby Park in the city. "I had surgery on my neck that day," owner Richard Shick said, "so he walked Butch for me."
"It was ... pretty miserable," Parvis recalled Friday. "Cold and windy like today." He was ready to leave, but the boxer kept snuffling the ground.
"I'm saying, 'Git on, it's cold, let's go,' " he said, "but Butch didn't budge. I looked down and said, 'What have you got there, buddy?' and there's a gold ring." It was inscribed, "Love to John, from Karen 12-2-95."
"I put a notice in the paper, but nobody picked up on it," he said. "So I called the Bureau of Vital Statistics down in Dover and they said, 'We don't keep track of that kind of information,' so they suggested I call Ken Boulden."
When Parvis called the Marriage Bureau, he talked to legal assistant Dan Cole, who said no one there could recall such an inquiry. "He just called us up and said, 'I found a gold band with two names and a date," Cole said.
Cole got the next clue courtesy of Tom Coviello, the longtime chief deputy clerk of the peace who retired at the end of last year. He created WebMarriage, a cutting-edge data system accessing Delaware marriage facts as far back as 1900.
As Cole searched WebMarriage for the names and date in the ring, he said, "there were actually two 'John & Karens' married that day."
The database has only couples' addresses at marriage, he said, so he checked property records. "One was somewhere in northern New Castle County and one lives a mile from Canby Park, where the ring was found. So I figured, that had to be them." He also learned the Johnsons are in their 40s, so a 1995 wedding fit.
To confirm, he went to visit.
Karen answered the door and was stunned when Cole asked if they lost a ring.
"I was really happy," she said.
John had left minutes earlier to walk their dogs Mugsy, an American bulldog, and Franklin, a rescued pit bull at Canby Park, where the ring had slipped off his left pinky.
Years ago, they explained, his hands outgrew the band, so they had a silver one made for his ring finger. His pinky fit the irreplaceable original, hand-made in England, engraved outside with an intricate pattern.
To celebrate its return, Boulden said, "I offered to renew their vows."
So a meet-up was set, which was easy because, by coincidence, Butch and his owner live three blocks from the Johnsons on Maple Street and the dog-men knew each other from the park.
"Our dogs can't play together because they're all male," Shick said, "but as soon as I heard the address, I knew, 'That's Mugsy and Franklin.' "
The Johnsons, Parvis, Shick and Butch met Friday on the Johnsons' porch, joined by Cole and Chief Deputy Clerk of the Peace Gregory Gross all reflecting on the only-in-Delaware nature of the ring's return.
Shick and Johnson told the others of shared experiences at the park, finding a stray dog there about a year ago and having their dogs skunk-sprayed a week apart.
They shared a good laugh after Jarvis said the ring was found along a walkway near a bench by the entrance and Johnson suddenly recalled stopping there when Mugsy and Franklin opted to take a squat. "That may have been what Butch was smelling," he said, chuckling as the others laughed.
"Butch is the hero of the day," his wife added with a smile, moments before slipping the ring back where it belonged. "I'm happy to have it back," her husband said.
They opted to wait to renew their vows until their 20th anniversary celebration, to be attended by two daughters and eight grandchildren, Karen said.
Boulden, who will officiate the vows, didn't go Friday so Cole could represent their office at the happy occasion he made happen.
The ring's return began with a hero dog and good Samaritan who sought its owner instead of hocking it, Boulden said. Then there was the personal effort of a county employee who used the brilliant data system another county employee created, along with his wits to find the owners, then visited after work. "That's all pretty amazing to me," Boulden said.
As he talked Thursday night to Karen Johnson, Boulden said, she cried saying she was praying to Saint Anthony to "please, please find that ring" just before Cole knocked and asked, "Did you lose a ring?"
"I tell my staff over and over again, 'We're not in the marriage business, we're in the people business,' " he said. "They get it, Dan gets it, and I couldn't be happier."
With the ring returned for Valentine's Day, he said, "it's absolutely perfect."
Cole, who insisted Butch and Jarvis are the heroes, said, "I was just glad that we were able to connect with them by Valentine's Day.... It would have been a shame for them to have had to celebrate Valentine's Day without the symbol of the love they were celebrating."
The couple plans a quiet Valentine's Day dinner at home with Mugsy, Franklin and their once-again matching rings.
Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.
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Source: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2015/02/13/lost-ring-returned-just-time-valentines-day/23385607/
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