Alex, boxer

Dog missing for four years reunited with family
By Karen Kucher, Union-Tribune BREAKING NEWS TEAM
June 16, 2006

Jaclyn and Monica Najjar picked up their boxer, Alex, from the county animal shelter in San Diego Friday. They said the dog's personality seemed the same, and that she seemed to remember them, despite having been gone for four years.

SAN DIEGO – After four years, Alex the boxer is finally home.

A beloved pet that had been missing since March 2002 was reunited with her owners early Friday morning after workers at the county's central shelter found a microchip under its fur.

The dog had been relinquished by its current owner.

Lisa Najjar and two of her three daughters, Monica and Jaclyn, picked up the dog first thing Friday morning, arriving even before the shelter opened.

“Alex went straight from the shelter to the vet and then to get a bath,” Najjar said.

Najjar said no one in the family believed it at first when shelter employees called late Thursday to say they had found Alex.

“We are just really, really happy,” she said. “She looks good. She looks healthy. She's in good condition and we're thrilled to have her back.

“It kind of feels like she hasn't been gone, in a way.”

Shelter workers routinely scan animals brought in for microchips, using an identification system that stores information about a pet's owner in a database.

The dog vanished from the family's fenced backyard in Encinitas back in 2002, Lisa Najjar said. The Najjars looked for her for weeks at local veterinarian offices, pet stores and shelters. The family suspected the pure breed may have been stolen.

Two years ago, they got another dog, a papillon, and named it Metro. The two dogs were to meet Friday afternoon.

The man who relinquished the boxer told animal control workers he was unable to keep it because he was moving into a condo, Najjar said.

Johnson said the man said he had bought the dog for $100 in Escondido about three years ago from someone who claimed to be the dog's owner.

He had named the dog “Rosie” and told county shelter workers he was amazed to learn its original owners were found via its microchip. He could not be reached Friday.

Much has changed in the years since Alex turned up missing.

The three Najjar daughters have become teenagers. Jaclyn Najjar, 18, graduated from high school on Friday just hours after the family picked up Alex.

“I think she remembers us. She is really open and she seems like the exact same dog,” said Monica Najjar, 15.

Alex also will have to get used to a new house. In the years she was gone, the family moved from Olivenhain to Cardiff.

“We got her as a puppy for Christmas and had her microchipped right away,” Lisa Najjar said. “ Thank God that we did.”

Source: http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060616-1353-bn16doggy.html
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