A lost dog has been reunited with his family with a little help from East High football players photographed with him for Thursday's Californian.

A photographer was on the practice field earlier this week taking pictures for the newspaper's annual high school football preview when a dirty, mangy poodle wandered over.

Staff photographer Henry A. Barrios snapped a photo just as junior varsity quarterback Austin Charles reached down to scratch the little guy's head. The image made the front page.

Team members couldn't bear to just leave the dog on the field, so they queried one another about taking him home. No one was in a position to accept the dog, so they reluctantly took him to the Bakersfield Animal Shelter on Mount Vernon Avenue.

That's where he was about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, when Mike Martinez's phone began ringing off the hook.

Friends who recognized Kobe the poodle (named after that Kobe, from the Lakers) were breathlessly telling him to get a copy of the paper. Wasn't that Kobe on the front page?

Martinez and his family had arranged for his mom to dog sit before going on vacation to Morro Bay a couple of weeks ago.

"He might have thought we abandoned him and was trying to make his way home," said Martinez, 38, who works in sales for the wine industry.

The family, including three children ages 14, 10 and 1 1/2, was devastated to return home and learn Kobe was missing.

"He'd already been gone for a couple of days, so we didn't know if we'd ever find him," said Martinez's son, 14-year-old Michael Jr.

Kobe usually wears a collar, but it had been removed just before the trip because it had a bell on it that was bothering people.

A cloud hung over the household with Kobe gone, Martinez said.

"Michael was waking up early to go look for him, and you know it's bad when a teenager wakes up early on a Saturday over summer break," he said.

They put up fliers all over the neighborhood and visited local shelters.

There were heartbreaking false alarms, calls about found pooches who turned out not to be Kobe.

Then, 15 minutes of fame.

It wasn't Kobe's best shot, to be sure. He was scrawny, filthy and matted from having spent a week outside. But East High isn't far from where Martinez's mother lives. He knew the minute he saw that picture and was at the shelter as soon as it opened Thursday.

"Kobe was so excited to see us," Martinez said. "And the kids were ecstatic."

Plus, Kobe got a free grooming out of it. Platinum Paws heard of his ordeal and donated a bath and haircut.

"He's all fancy and pretty now," Martinez said.