Bandit, beagle

Family reunited with long lost beagle

FOX 5 San Diego Staff

8:45 AM PDT, September 30, 2010

CARLSBAD, Calif. - A wayward beagle was reunited with his San Diego County family six months after he escaped from the back yard.

Gil Garcia and his family picked up their beloved beagle, Bandit, Wednesday at an animal shelter in Carlsbad. The family had given their pet up for a goner.

"You hate to say you wrote something off, but we considered after six -- almost seven -- months that he was gone," Garcia said.

Bandit made his great escape back in March with the help of Garcia's 5-year-old daughter, Jillian.

"The little one was the one who actually let him out of the back yard," Garcia said.

Somehow, over the next six month, Bandit made his way from the Garcia home in Bonita to the North County mountain community of Julian, nearly 60 miles away. A resident reported him running loose, and county Animal Control picked him up and took him to the Carlsbad shelter.

"And then, all of a sudden, they get a phone call from me at 7 o'clock in the morning saying, 'I have your dogg. Would you like to come and get it?'" said Animal Control Lt. Lisa Worrick. "They were ecstatic!"

"It woke up the whole house, I'll tell you that," Garcia said.

Garcia said the successful reunion was possible because of the identification microchip implanted in Bandit.

"When we bought him, they said, 'Hey, he's got a microchip in him. If he ever comes up lost, (you'll) be able to get him back.' And sure enough, it worked," Garcia said. "We're shocked.We're really, really shocked. I didn't think we'd ever see him again."

Garcia says Bandit is "a little skinnier because he walked off his baby fat" but appeared none the worse for the wear.


Source: http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-beagle-reunited-with-bonita-family,0,4754734.story
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