Lost dog, owner reunited by chance at Johnson City PetSmart
By NET News Service
Published May 15th, 2009
This dog tale could easily be the script of a Disney movie, complete with a heartwarming reunion and wholesome life lesson at the end.
Jeanette Wood thought her dog, Bee-Bee, was gone forever.
“I got her about 14 years ago, and she is my girl,” Wood said. “It was late January or early February — I got up one morning and let her out and went to make a pot of coffee. Next thing I knew she was gone. Someone had taken her.”
To make matters worse, Bee-Bee had gone missing right before Jeanette moved from Kingsport to Johnson City. Despite every effort to locate the family pet and longtime companion, Jeanette had to move on. Bee-Bee was seemingly gone, but in reality, it was way too early to write the little critter off.
“I called the animal shelter every day, gave them my information, but they didn’t have her. I basically gave her up for dead because she’s so old,” Wood said. “She’s 16, and since she got lost in February I thought she probably froze to death. There was just no way she could have survived that weather.”
That’s when fate intervened by way of a program run by the Kingsport Animal Shelter.
“We send animals to PetSmart every Saturday — a van load — to the one in Johnson City to try and find them homes,” Shelter Assistant Manager Donna Davidson said. “It’s a really great program. It really helps the animals tremendously to find homes.”
Last Saturday, the stars must have been in just the right alignment. As the day began, Wood thought it was just another day at work. She went about her normal routine getting settled into her shift at PetSmart until, like magic, something unbelievable happened.
“I had just gotten there to work as a cashier and rung one person up when I saw Stephanie, one of the volunteers from the animal shelter, walk in with her. I was in shock for a minute, but there she was,” Wood said. “Of course I started crying, and I ran and grabbed my dog, and they let me have her.
“She was so relieved she just went limp. I just held her and wouldn’t let her go the whole time until I walked out the door.”
Wood offered a special thanks to her boss for letting her go home right away due to the unbelievable turn of events and tearful reunion.
“It was a great story and a wonderful homecoming,” Davidson said. “It just thrilled us all that the little dog got to go back home. Even if they are 16 years old, we do everything we can to find them a home.”
And just like in the movies, there is a moral to this story to go along with the happy ending.
This one case turned out well, but there are countless other pets that are never found by their owners. According to shelter workers, one of the best things to do is keep checking shelters in the surrounding area where your pet was lost.
“It just goes to show that when people lose an animal, they really need to call the shelters first, even if it has just been a day because you never know,” Davidson said. “These people had lived here and had just moved to Johnson City. So these were very unusual circumstances that they found their dog.”
Wood had one other bit of advice for dog owners whose pets get to enjoy the outdoors.
“Put an identification tag on your pet,” Wood said. “She didn’t have a tag on her when I let her out. She didn’t have a collar. So I made sure to get a tag with her name and the phone numbers where I can be reached if anything should happen again.”
Bee-Bee is now relaxing at home with her family and, according to her owners, seems to be in better health for her age than when she disappeared.
Source: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/09/News/article.php?ID=68914
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