A heartwarming story of a lost blind dog who, through sheer luck and a fortuitous Craigslist post, was reunited with its owner:

Stevie, a dog born without eyes and apparently abused by a previous owner, was found early in 2011 by Gutierrez’s daughter as he wandered near a city duck pond. Instantly, the dog became a part of the family, responding to their voices and dragging Gutierrez out for exercise.

Days after Thanksgiving, though, Stevie escaped — disappearing from the family’s home. Days later, Gutierrez’s landlord told her the dog was dead.

On Dec. 11, Stevie showed up at Animal Care Services. A collar and tag kept him alive for five days, Jeanne Saadi, the agency’s live release coordinator, said. But with outdated information, the agency failed to find his owners and prepared to euthanize him.

That’s when Brooke Orr, a high school teacher, saw the agency’s ad seeking a home for the blind dog. She agreed to care for Stevie over the holidays, buying him a few more days.

Meanwhile, Gutierrez’s distraught daughter posted a lost dog notice on Craigslist, hoping someone would see it and return Stevie.

Orr noticed the tag dangling on the dog’s neck.

“I thought that he must belong to someone. So I went to Craigslist and went to lost and found and I put in ‘blind dog,’ and there he was,” she said.

She contacted Gutierrez, who arrived at the Animal Care Services on Thursday uncertain the dog would be able to recognize her.

Google Stevie Oedipus Wonder for a primer on how many different ways a small set of facts can be spun into a story. It’s astonishing to see the number bylines claiming this story… which must have been pulled from the wire services and rewritten in virtually every case. Did they all do original reporting? Surely not.

Perceptive readers will see dozens of problems in the quote above; I won’t belabor them here. I don’t mean to be a scrooge, but this story is a great big mess. I even wonder if it was a malicious prank. I mean really… Stevie Oedipus Wonder. Seriously?