By Dan Scanlan, Florida Times-Union
August 27, 2010
The last time Dalton Perry saw Gage, it was about two years ago. The then-Glen St. Mary boy put the young yellow Labrador in an outside pen after dinner.
Then someone purloined the puppy.
Friday afternoon, one day before National Dog Day, 13-year-old Dalton was reunited with a much bigger canine Gage at Nassau County Animal Services in Fernandina Beach. Only problem — whoever had the dog in the interval renamed him Roscoe, according to his worn collar.
With the implanted ID microchip in the dog and work by the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, the Perrys were tracked to their new Middleburg home after two detectives found Gage (err, Roscoe) wandering outside Callahan BBQ on Florida 200 on Wednesday.
“It was good detective work, an act of God and two detectives,” Animal Services Director Deborah Biggs said at the reunion.
Dalton was grinning as he hugged his 11th birthday present, back alive and tail wagging.
“He’s big,” an excited Dalton said.
With two new Labs as Dalton’s latest birthday present, it’s going to be a busy house after the surprise recovery of the first Lab, his mother said.
“I couldn’t believe it all. It was shocking,” Ashley Perry said. “We are trying to make the adjustment now. But we have 3 1/2 acres and my ex-husband has a huge farm, so we have plenty of room.”
The two detectives, Dee Gaston and Michelle Christensen, found the dog with his ribs showing through his light yellow fur. They fed him some chicken before Animal Services picked him up. The telephone number on his brass tag was disconnected.
But the dog had been microchipped — a tiny electronic tag injected under his skin that carries a canine’s veterinarian information when scanned. A scan led to the Jacksonville veterinarian who injected the microchip, but the phone number for the Perrys was old.
The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office didn’t stop there and was able to locate the Perrys 40 miles away in Middleburg. Animal center officials e-mailed photos of the dog to the mother, and she confirmed it was hers.
“We have had animals come in with microchips and been able to rejoin them with their owners, but not an animal gone for two years,” Biggs said. “You are ecstatic [when this happens]. You have goosebumps. It is really a great feeling to save an animal and reunite them after so long.”
With the paperwork finished, an animal services officer went back to Gage’s cage. The dog put his paws on the gate as his tail swung furiously. Pulling hard on the leash, his paws slid on the office floor as he met his original family.
“Hey, buddy,” Perry said as the dog tentatively walked up to her son. “We are going to have our hands full.”
Dalton said he was so happy when Gage came into his life two years ago, because he always wanted a Lab. Then he was gone, and he gave him up as stolen. His mother said she always microchips her dogs, but this is the first time one did its job.
“We had a Pekinese and a Dachshund [four years ago] and we had the chips put in them, and someone came in our back yard and stole those,” she said.
“They never turned up and we called the vet, Humane Society and everyone around. It’s just amazing two years later we found this dog.”
As for the ultimate name of their new/old pet, “we will see what he goes by,” Perry said. She will use Roscoe, while her son may give Gage a try for a while.
Source: http://jacksonville.com/community/clay/2010-08-27/story/microchip-deputies-help-reunite-long-lost-dog-clay-county-owner
Printer-friendly version here
Video here
Another version of the story at: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-08-28/story/microchip-and-deputies-help-reunite-long-lost-labrador-clay-county-owner
No comments:
Post a Comment