Saturday, April 10, 2010

Maya, collie-spaniel mix

Homeward Hound: Waco family reunited with dog after two years, thanks to microchip
By Erin Quinn Tribune-Herald staff writer
Thursday April 1, 2010

The Hairston family was reunited with their dog, Maya, after the dog was gone for two years.

Sara Hairston cried for a month when her collie-spaniel mix, Maya, and two puppies ran away two years ago from her family’s not-quite-enclosed backyard.

“I was just devastated,” Sara, 11, of Waco, said.  Sara and her family slowly moved on after Maya ran away. They adopted Molly, a 10-year-old border-collie mix, about a year ago from Fuzzy Friends Dog Rescue. But they always wondered what happened to sweet little Maya and her puppies.

The Hairston family was reunited with their dog, Maya, this week after the dog was gone for two years. Monday, Happy Endings Dog Rescue called and said Maya had been found.

A Hewitt woman called Happy Endings Dog Rescue and told employees that a friendly dog approached her while she was gardening. The woman could tell the slightly dirty mutt had been well cared for, said LeAnne Fuller, Happy Endings’ adoption and foster volunteer coordinator.

Happy Endings told the woman to bring the dog in and scan her in hopes of finding an identifying microchip, a device the size of a grain of rice that is placed between a pet’s shoulder blades and can be installed in a few seconds. The dog was scanned. Sure enough, the Hairstons’ information popped up.

The Hairstons had adopted Maya four years ago from Fuzzy Friends Rescue, a Waco nonprofit rescue organization that gives new owners the option of microchipping an animal before adopting it.

Fuller and her staff got in touch with the Hairstons, who were at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport returning from a friend’s wedding in New York when they got the call.

“We were just in shock,” said Cullen Hairston, 13. “It was unbelievable.”

The next day, they went to get their long-lost dog.

“She jumped right in my husband’s arms,” Loryn Hairston said. “I don’t know if she’s extremely friendly or she really did remember us.”

Watching the reunion brought joy to Happy Endings employees.

“In this business, there are a lot of sad days,” said Fuller, who said she has worked in animal welfare for 25 years. “But this makes all our efforts worthwhile.”

What happened to Maya between the day she and her puppies strayed from the Hairstons’ backyard and the day she jumped into Thad Hairston’s arms might always be a mystery. And the Hairstons haven’t seen Maya’s puppies since.

“Until you lose a dog, you don’t realize how important microchipping is,” Fuller said.

“With microchipping, if you lose your dog, at least you have that safety and comfort of knowing that you still have that chance of getting your dog back. Without that little chip, this dog never would have been reunited with her family.”

Source: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/Homeward-Hound-Waco-family-reunited-with-dog-after-two-years-thanks-to-microchip.html
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