Kiddo, akita mix

Lost dog found 4 years later
By Steven Butler
Published: September 25, 2011

Kiddo had not seen his family in over four years. No matter, canine life goes on.

Meanwhile, over 100 miles away, his owner, Wendy Love, received a call.

Kiddo and Wendy are reunited at the shelter

Turn the clock back five days. For Culpeper County Animal Control personnel, it was business as usual. They had received complaints of two unfriendly dogs living off Clover Hill Road—a black and white male akita mix and a black and tan female akita mix.

The male was extremely protective of his female counterpart.

“He wouldn’t approach, he would just stand there and growl,” said Kim Seibert, operations manager. Along with Animal Control Officer Greg Sargent, Seibert attempted to safely capture the dogs for five days. “There was no getting near him,” she said.

“It got down to the point where we were telling people if he gets aggressive, you have the right to shoot him,” said Seibert. She believed the dog was feral. “That is one of the worst things when you get a call and they won’t come anywhere near you.”

On the fifth day, they got lucky. Using a box trap, they were able to capture the male. The female evaded capture again.

As is standard procedure, when they brought the dog in, they scanned it for a microchip, which is a device injected into animals for identification purposes. To their surprise, they found one.

“I never in a 1,000 years would have believed he had a microchip in him,” said Seibert. “As soon as we micro-chipped him and found out his name, he calmed down and turned out to be a sweetie.”

The chip informed them that the dog’s name was Kiddo and its owner was Wendy Love, from Gaithersburg, Maryland—just over 100 miles away.

When Love answered the phone, she couldn’t believe it.

“What? Kiddo? Really?” She had not seen or heard any information about Kiddo since February 2008 when he was three years old. At the time, she lived in Gaithersburg and had left Kiddo with a sitter.

“I went on vacation, I came home and he was gone,” she said. Love and the workers at Animal Control had no idea what could have happened to Kiddo between 2008 and now.

“He’s not skinny, he’s not mangy and he hasn’t been hit by a motor vehicle,” said Seibert. The staff was confident that if Kiddo had been taken to a vet or animal shelter, he would have been scanned just as they had done.

Seibert said she has heard of animals traveling long distances, but doubts this is the case. “Sounds kind of wild, but I guess it could happen,” she said.

Kiddo, however, is keeping his silence and the past four years of his life will most likely remain a mystery.

When Love arrived, after the 2.5-hour drive from her current home, Glen Burnie, Md., Kiddo acted a bit distant, as if annoyed.

As soon as she mentioned a car ride, Kiddo could not contain his excitement anymore and started wagging his tail and barking excitedly as Love scratched behind his ears.

“I was crying on the way up here. I was so excited,” she said. “You give up after a while.”

When she led him out to her car—the same car she had four years ago—Kiddo hopped right in, not missing a beat. Love said that back home he would be reunited with Autumn, her puppy Kiddo was buddies with before he went missing.

Looking on, adopting coordinator, Loretta Clatterbuck said, “Bless his heart. This is a happy day. This is what I do, this is why.”

With his head hanging out the window and his tongue licking the breeze, Kiddo was finally going back to his family. He was finally going home.

Source: http://www2.starexponent.com/news/2011/sep/25/lost-dog-found-4-years-later-ar-1334814/
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