Martina Navratilova’s Missing Dog Found Trying to Scratch Up a Dinner

Martina Navratilova’s wayward pup, which was AWOL since last Friday morning, has been found. The 2 1/2-year-old Shiba named Yonni was the subject of one of the most intense dog hunts ever mounted in tennis history.

Navratilova had brought four of her dogs to the Southland for the Virginia Slims of Los Angeles tournament, which she won Sunday. She had been agonizing over the escape of her dog from the backyard of a friend’s home in Sherman Oaks.

Team Martina was assembled: Groups scoured the neighborhood and circulated flyers with the dog’s photo and not a small mention of the $1,000 reward Navratilova offered. Navratilova had been giving daily updates to the press, even going on television seeking public assistance.

The breakthrough came Saturday night, as Navratilova was playing a doubles match. A woman who had just returned home from vacation was talking on the phone Saturday night when she heard a scratching at her door. It was Yonni, hungry and about one mile off base.

“She couldn’t get him to come in,” Navratilova said. “She had seen the flyer we left at the supermarket, and she drove back there to get the phone number. She didn’t know who I was or that there was a reward or anything. She didn’t want to take the reward, but I thought she had earned it.”

Navratilova said the episode had “restored your faith in humanity.”