DUNKIRK — A couple of brothers in Dunkirk got a big surprise recently when they found a dog in the city: the pet belongs to one of their principals.

The saga happened Oct. 6 and started with a call to city Animal Control Officer Denise Zentz.

“I got a call that there was a black dog running in and out of traffic in the area of Fifth and McKinley,” Zentz said.

Responding to that area, she saw a group of boys playing. She asked them to be on the lookout for a black dog running loose, and to get their parents to call her or the police if they saw it. Zentz drove a couple of loops around the area to see if she could spot the dog, but did not, so she went home.

About two hours later, she got a call from the same resident who initially phoned her: the dog was safe with a couple of the boys she saw playing.

The boys, seventh-grader Anthony Dolce and fifth-grader Evan Dolce, took it upon themselves to search for the dog, Zentz said.

“They took the initiative on their own,” agreed their mother, Jordan Dolce. “We recently got a puppy so they’ve sort of become more aware about animal care things. They took off down the street and went after her.”

The dog, a pit bull named Delilah, “did a Houdini and got out of a fenced in yard,” Zentz said.

After meeting the boys, she took the canine to the city animal shelter and posted on Facebook about the lost dog. Only a few minutes after the post, Josh Tedone, assistant principal at Dunkirk Junior-Senior High School, called her to say the dog was his and he was coming to get it.

“I invited the boys down (to the shelter) to meet the owner so he could see who helped find his little poochie,” Zentz said.

Coincidentally, the dog was found by one of Tedone’s students, Anthony Dolce. They boy’s effort helped get him named one of the Dunkirk school district’s Students of the Month.

Zentz offered another connection. She shared a clipping of an OBSERVER article from 35 years ago which detailed how the boys’ father, A.J. Dolce, did his own rescue when he was a boy, of an injured and bug-infested stray cat named Tramp.