Friday, July 09, 2010, 4:50 PM
It sounds like a tale from a Disney movie. An adorable 6-pound Pomeranian somehow made her way from Phoenix, Arizona to Hillsboro,Oregon. “Sophie went missing from her home last November. We can only guess where she’s been in her journey to our shelter,” says Deborah Wood, manager of Animal Services for Washington County.
Sophie was brought in as a stray to the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter on Wednesday morning. “We scan every stray animal that comes here for a microchip, and happily Sophie had one,” says Wood. The chip manufacturer gave the shelter the dog’s owner’s phone number. “It took a while for our shelter technician to understand what the owner was saying - she was hard to hear through her happy tears,” says Wood.
“Owner Shannon Reyes was completely committed to getting her dog, no matter what it took,” says Wood. The problem: Reyes’ husband had recently lost his job, and the family was figuring out how to get the dog from Oregon to Arizona with limited finances.
A Phoenix, Arizona television station picked up on the story - and help poured in. “A Phoenix viewer arranged for Shannon’s airfare to Oregon,” says Wood. A woman from California who saw the story on the Internet called the shelter and volunteered to pay for the dog’s redemption fees at Bonnie Hays. “Everyone’s heart went out to this little dog and her owner who loves her so much,” says Wood.
Reyes will pick up her dog at the shelter on Saturday.
Washington County Animal Services says there are important lessons in this story with a happy ending:
***MICROCHIP YOUR PETS: “Sophie is being reunited with her owner because she was microchipped,” says Wood. Every year, the Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter reunites about 1200 animals with their owners - and microchips are the leading way to match people with their pets.
***IF YOU FIND A LOST ANIMAL, TAKE IT TO YOUR COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER. “We will probably never know exactly what happened, but the chances are that Sophie got loose somehow from her home, and someone picked her up. They probably thought they were helping a dog that no one cared about,” says Wood. Lost dogs quickly look unkempt and unloved. “Most people desperately want their lost pets back. The best way to do that is to take the dog to a shelter.”
Source: http://blog.oregonlive.com/my-hillsboro/2010/07/bonnie_hays_shelter_in_hillsboro_reuniting_lost_dog_with_arizona_owner.html
Another version of the story . . .
Tiny pooch on a big trip to be reunited with owners
By KATU News
Jul 9, 2010
Sophie
Sophie - a 1-year-old Pomeranian - was turned in to the Bonnie L. Hays small animal shelter in Hillsboro on Wednesday.
She vanished from her Chandler, Arizona home in November and somehow made it all the way to Hillsboro - over 1,300 miles away.
The Reyes family had all but given up hope until they received a phone call from the shelter Wednesday.
“We were able to tell her that Sophie was here, safe-and-sound, getting great care and we just had to figure out how to get Sophie back to her people” shelter worker Debbie Wood said.
Long before she disappeared, Sophie’s owners had an ID chip embedded under her skin.
The shelter scanned her, just like it does for every dog that is turned in, and the chip led back to Sophie’s family.
They plan to pick her up on Saturday.
Source: http://www.katu.com/news/local/98138134.html
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