Family loses home, then dog
Little boy's birthday puppy apparently stolen a day after house fire on Langside Street
Mon May 7 2007
By Alexandra Paul
A family shaken by a fire that forced them out of their home was hit the next day with a further emotional blow -- their new residence was broken into and the family dog is now missing.
At 3:30 a.m. Saturday, the Nolette family was burnt out in an apparent arson at their rented home on Langside Street.
They moved later that day to another house but were dismayed to find early Sunday that a thief had broken into their new home and apparently taken their dog.
The puppy, a two-month-old chocolate Labrador named Bear, had been a birthday present for Braydon Nolette, who turned four this weekend.
"I'm offering $100 reward to get my puppy back, no questions asked," said Nicole Nolette, 21, the mother of the family and a counter clerk at the Portage Place Subway.
The puppy was saved with the rest of the family when a courageous neighbour kicked in the door at 626 Langside St. early Saturday morning and roused the family to escape the fire.
A fire in the garage spread to the back of the house early Saturday before spreading to houses on either side at 624 and 628 Langside.
The Arson Task Force is investigating that fire and another one six blocks away on Victor Street that also spread to homes on each side. Both fires were set minutes apart.
As Nolette told her story Sunday, her sons Dakota, 2, and Braydon, 4, picked their way among the garage's charred timbers to stand by their mother. Under the blackened posts was the burned-out hulk of the family car.
The Nolette family figured they had a guardian angel the night of the fire when their neighbour, Howard King, banged on their front door to wake them up.
He said he saw flames shooting past the roof of the two-storey home a couple of doors down from his place on Langside and ran to get the family out.
When no one answered the front door, King said he kicked it in. "I woke everybody up and got them out of the house."
Nolette said she was grateful to her neighbour. "That's all I heard: 'There's a fire. Get out,' " she said. She fled with her two sons and her partner, Robert Poole.
On Saturday night, the Langside landlord gave the family permission to stay in a vacant house of his on Langside.
They brought Bear, the puppy that had been with the family for a few weeks as an early birthday gift for Braydon.
Having a dog around lent the family a sense of security. Nolette believed Bear's bark would keep strangers away.
Nolette said she settled Bear in the kitchen of their new home and left for her mother's house, where the family was going to regroup and sleep.
"I'd just moved the puppy to the new place and we left to spend the night at my mom's. I went back in the morning and a crackhead broke in and stole my puppy," Nolette said.
She figures the vagrant was a drug user because of crack paraphernalia, including pop cans with punctured ends, in the front yard. She spotted the litter in the daylight when she returned to collect the dog yesterday.
Inside the house, she found a pile of blankets, still warm from body heat, on the floor in an upstairs bedroom and she smelled cigarette smoke. But Bear was nowhere to be found.
After two months on Langside, the young woman said she's decided to leave the area.
People with information about the puppy can reach Nolette at 793-8637.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
© 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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