A man's best friend?
His dog, of course.
A dog's best friend?
Twitter?
At least that was the case Wednesday for Charlie, a black Labradoodle belonging to former Kansas City Royals great George Brett.
Charlie went missing late Tuesday night in the posh Kansas City suburb of Mission Hills.
But by Wednesday morning, after Brett posted what amounted to a Twitter APB on his account, Charlie had been found, safe and sound.
Charlie, named after the legendary hitting coach, Charley Lau, who helped transform Brett from a marginal big-leaguer to a first-ballot Hall of Famer, had been playing in Brett's backyard with another of the family's dogs. But shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Brett and his wife, Leslie, noticed Charlie was missing. George and Leslie set out on foot in opposite directions, combing the neighborhood. No luck.
Brett then began calling friends and reporters (me), hoping to come up with the best method to locate Charlie. One suggestion was to call the Humane Society. Another was to post a photo in the nearby grocery store.
But just after midnight, Brett turned to his Twitter account, which he had just started earlier in May, and posted this Tweet: "Please help: My dog has gone missing. his name is Charlie and he is a black labradoodle. HELP Please."
A short time later, Brett tweeted, "He is scared of the rain so this is going to be challenging!"
And, of course, it stormed overnight in Kansas City.
By Wednesday morning, Brett's APB caught the attention of local Kansas City radio and television stations, which joined in helping trend the "FindCharlie" efforts on Twitter.
Even sportswriter Peter King of Sports Illustrated got involved, retweeting Brett's "FindCharlie" tweets.
"Pulling for you George," King tweeted.
The Bretts' oldest son, Jackson, also got on his Twitter account to spread the word. He tweeted, "If anyone has seen my dog Charlie please contact me or my family. We are very worried! Black Labradoodle."
Jackson is a freshman catcher with the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minn.) baseball team and actually was in Appleton, Wis., for the Division III World Series. St. Thomas finished third Wednesday at the Series.
After spending virtually all night on Twitter, Brett decided to drive to the nearby Fairway Animal Hospital early Wednesday in hopes of finding Charlie, whose ID tags had fallen off at home. Just when Brett reached the parking lot, an elated Leslie called to tell him that a dog matching Charlie's description had been found and turned in at ... the Fairway Animal Hospital.
Brett went inside and, sure enough, it was Charlie, who, incidentally, had an identifying computer chip implanted before leaving the hospital.
At 8:23 Wednesday morning, George Brett posted the good news, tweeting, "We got him! Thank you for all the support! It is so touching to see how many people care! You all were a big help! Thank you."
Interestingly, the "FindCharlie" drama provided a dramatic boost to Brett's Twitter following. Brett started the day with a little over 10,000 followers. But he picked up an average of more than 100 followers each hour throughout Wednesday.
By 6 p.m. Wednesday, Brett had 11,686 followers. And it was still growing.
