We don’t jump on every lost pet story. Flyers for lost dogs and cats are stories that don’t even get ink on painfully slow news days.

But the widespread search for a labradoodle named Teddy was different. It was Page One news.

The IJ is a community newspaper that makes room for stories about local folks doing good things, either individual deeds or those mounted by groups.

We’ve run a lot of letters to the editor, thanking people for returning lost wallets or offering a well-timed much-needed helping hand. Those usually don’t make the cut in larger papers.

But we don’t devote reporters to every search for a lost Fido or Kitty.

The recent heartwarming search for 4-year-old Teddy was different — and it turned out that the coverage might have helped.

Teddy got lost on March 28 while his owner, Rebekeh Whittaker of Eugene, Oregon was visiting San Rafael.

She and her family left the house in which they were staying to get dinner and Teddy was gone when they returned.

The family mounted an exhausting search, recruiting the community’s help, including neighbors, first responders, mail carriers and dog-lovers who responded to their outreach. Even we joined the effort, giving the search some coverage.

The family returned home without Teddy. But the dog’s family never gave up. The story turned from heartbreaking to heartwarming.

It may not be every day that there is a lost labradoodle, a cross between a labrador and a standard poodle.

It’s certainly not every day that a search winds up involving so many, including thousands of people who watched and shared myriad videos posted by the owners. Sadly, it’s not every day that those searches find success.

In mid-April, Whittaker had returned to San Rafael to resume her search when she got a text message.

Apparently, a woman had found Teddy wandering around a parking lot near Andersen Drive and took the dog home with her. She saw one of the flyers about the search and contacted the owner.

Teddy’s home.

“I just want to say thank you to the community of San Rafael and everyone,” Whittaker said. “From the bottom of my family’s heart, thank you. They’ve brought my whole family back together again.”

These days, newspaper pages, in print and online, are dominated by stories about political upheaval — the challenges of addressing homelessness, wars, disasters and various crimes, fires and accidents.

Teddy’s story offered a change of pace — a story of a community connecting in a search for a lost dog and that widespread heartfelt search ending with good news.

We still had plenty of room for those “hard news” stories, but Teddy’s local adventure was a welcomed change of pace and a reminder that even amid waves of bad news, there are good times, good people and good news stories that deserve coverage, as well.

We strive to make room for them — even on Page One.