By Sherri Zickefoose, Postmedia News
March 27, 2012
CALGARY — An Arkansas family is being reunited with a long-lost dog that showed up in Calgary after vanishing mysteriously.
Nearly four years ago, five-month-old Rivers went missing from his Fayetteville, Ark., backyard, his owners say.
On Saturday, the registered purebred chocolate Labrador retriever was found running at large in a northwest Calgary park.
He was linked to his owners through a microchip.
"I'm just ecstatic. I really wish he could talk so he could explain the last 3 1/2 years to me," said owner Mary Sue Farmer.
"We're very excited. He's very far from home, We just can't wait to pick him up from the airport."
The dog is being flown home to Arkansas Tuesday.
Farmer bought the $500 pup for her duck-hunting son, Peter. They hoped their older Lab, Chip, would help teach Rivers duck hunting skills.
When he returned home from university classes, the back gate was swinging wide open and the dog was gone.
The family posted flyers and called veterinarians and animal shelters but there was no sign of the puppy.
"After several months you think she's not coming back. And after this many years we never dreamed of it," said Farmer, adding her son refused the offer of a new dog because he was heartbroken over the loss of Rivers.
While the family was accepting their sad fate, Rivers was adopted and renamed Buddy by an Oregon man. He moved to the Kootenays in British Columbia recently.
While visiting Calgary on the weekend, the dog escaped his caregiver and was picked up running loose by city bylaw officers.
When the dog's B.C. owners were told the pup belonged to a family 2,800 kilometres away, they agreed to return the pet to its rightful owners.
Described as friendly and "a bit of a goof," the 100-pound dog was crated and is being flown to Arkansas on United Airlines. Farmer said she didn't think twice about paying the $800 fee, plus an extra $75 for Rivers to be walked during a layover.
"A pet's licence is his ticket home," said Bill Bruce, director of Animal and Bylaw Services.
"We've returned dogs to Saskatoon and Victoria, but this is the first from the States. It's unlikely that this reunion would be occurring if Rivers' owner hadn't micro-chipped him."
All cats and dogs within Calgary are required to be licensed at three months of age.
Calgary has the highest return-to-owner and lowest cat and dog euthanization rates in North America, bylaw services say.
The city licensing program boasts over 90 per cent of dogs and 55 per cent of cats residing in Calgary are licensed.
In Calgary, dogs are required to wear their licence tag when off their owners' property. Calgary cats need to be licensed but if they have a readable microchip or legible tattoo, are not required to wear their tag.
Sometimes pets that are microchipped are still unable to be reunited with their owners because their contact information was not updated with their microchip provider.
"Licensing and permanent identification, as in Rivers' situation, provide peace of mind for pet owners because they know that if their pet goes missing, these tools will help Animal and Bylaw Services reunite them with their pet," said Bruce.
Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Long+lost+home+Arkansas+family/6362715/story.html
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