The blows came like a one-two punch. He lost his wife to Alzheimer's in late 2007. The bills ballooned, and next went their house in Highspire last year. But when authorities seized Baron, his 7-year-old male collie last month, it was one indignity too many for Miles D. Thomas. So the 73-year-old former Harrisburg School Board president filed suit in federal court to get his dog back from the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area Inc. The agency maintains that the dog is being held as part of a cruelty case but has declined to release details.

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"To me, he's the greatest thing I have in the world," Thomas said of his dog, the fourth in a line of collies the family has owned, all of them named for royalty. "I love him so much, yet they try to keep me from him. I can't understand that," said Thomas, his eyes brimming with tears. It happened over lunch on a breezy, comfortable 76-degree day in late July, according to the federal lawsuit. Thomas said he went for a meal at the Brownstone Cafe in Middletown and left Baron in his Buick LeSabre with the windows down. "I took him every place I went," Thomas said of his canine companion. "I'd open up the back door and he'd jump right in the backseat. He loved going in the car with me." But when Thomas returned to the car in less than an hour, Baron was gone. Instead, Humane Society canine officer William Sandstrom handed Thomas a business card and informed him his dog had been seized. Devastated, Thomas turned to Silver Spring Township dog rescuer Tom Lewis, who referred him to Susquehanna Twp. attorney Andrew Ostrowski. The lawyer sees it as a civil rights case. "I couldn't imagine letting this man go without his dog," Ostrowski said. "He cares deeply for the dog, and he's seriously affected by this. In my view, it's a federal, constitutional civil rights issue, and I won't shrink from it." This week, U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III issued a temporary restraining order barring the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area from destroying or transferring ownership of Baron. A hearing is scheduled Sept. 3. Ostrowski said he's also pursuing a civil suit that seeks damages. Amy Kaunas, Humane Society of Harrisburg Area executive director, said Wednesday that Thomas' dog was seized as part of a cruelty investigation initiated by a referral from the Middletown police. She declined to discuss specifics of the case, citing agency policy. However, she pointed to state animal-cruelty statutes stating that animals must be provided with adequate shelter and access to food, water and veterinary care. Middletown Police Chief Keith Reismiller said Thomas was known to police as a homeless person prone to sleeping in his car in Highspire and Middletown. The most recent police report regarding Thomas is dated June 18, when police responded to a complaint of Thomas occupying a space in a Middletown bank parking lot. When Thomas' car registration and license plate came back suspended, the plates were removed, the car was towed and Thomas was taken to the Bethesda Mission homeless shelter in Harrisburg, Reismiller said. Thomas' dog was not mentioned in the police report, but Reismiller acknowledged that his department contracts with the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area to shelter abused or abandoned animals found in the borough. The thought of harming Baron is abhorrent to Thomas. The slump-shouldered former stock-and-commodities broker fell more than $100,000 in debt after his ailing wife spent three years in an East Pennsboro nursing home. Yet Thomas insisted that he always took care of his dog and has the annual veterinary records to prove it. "To me, Baron is by far the most important [thing]," said Thomas, a fixture on the Harrisburg School Board in the 1970s and early 1980s. "I took care of him. I thought of him first. I took better care of him than I did myself." Since Thomas lost his home last year, he has spent most nights in inexpensive rural motels off of U.S. Route 22. He estimated that he slept in his car a total of two weeks or so during this period. Earlier this month, Stephen Conklin, a friend of Ostrowski's, took Thomas in at his farm in Warrington Twp., York County. But even with the stability of a home and family around him, the separation from his dog has taken a physical toll on Thomas. "He's lost weight," Conklin said. "He was at the doctor's office [Wednesday], and he's not doing as well." Now that Thomas has a stable home situation, Conklin said there's no reason for the Humane Society to continue to hold Baron. "It's beyond the pale," Conklin said. "We want him to get his dog back." Thomas said he worries more about Baron's well-being. "He so attached to me," he said of the dog. But the emotional nourishment works both ways. Thomas saw this firsthand when his wife, Anna, was ill and her memory was slowly receding. Even then, Baron could bring her back. On those occasions when Thomas brought the collie to the nursing home, Baron didn't hesitate. Tail wagging, he went right for Anna's lap. "He would jump up and give her a big kiss," Thomas said. "She would get a smile on her face. She couldn't talk, but he'd kiss her and she'd get a big smile."