Submitted by Halley Griffin, KOMO Communities Reporter
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012, 10:30am
Photo of "Lil Man"
Adrienne Snipes was skeptical when she pulled up to Federal Way's Crestwood Animal Hospital last Tuesday.
She couldn't believe that the little brown chihuahua she'd believed was dead for the past six years could really be waiting for her inside.
"I expected when I got to the vet that this was going to be some sort of a hoax," she said.
But when Snipes walked through the door, "Lil Man" recognized her instantly.
"I think he recognized me sooner than I recognized him," said Snipes, who says she got teary when she realized the dog was really hers.
Lil Man went missing six years ago, while a family member was dog sitting. Snipes' family has assumed ever since that Lil Man was hit by a car.
Snipes had Lil Man micro-chipped just weeks before he went missing, but in the six years he was gone, the phone call never came.
Until last Tuesday.
Amber Ellis was just starting her morning last Tuesday when she looked outside of her Federal Way home and spotted a dog in the yard that wasn't hers.
She and her husband went door-to-door through their neighborhood and posted photos on line before heading to Crestwood Animal Hospital to see if the dog had a microchip.
Turns out, Lil Man did.
"We're completely flabbergasted by it," said Ellis. "It was surreal. It was well-worth any effort that we put into it."
Jennifer Ives is the veterinary technician who found Lil Man's microchip last week. She says when she first called Snipes, Lil Man's owner didn't seem to know what she was talking about.
Snipes first told Ives that no, she wasn't missing a dog. After all, she has four at home already - then things started to click.
"I was very shocked," said Snipes. "This is just incredible for an animal to make it back home after all these years."
Not to mention Lil Man was found in Federal Way - and Snipes lives down in Tacoma.
Snipes and Ives are both advocates of micro-chipping your pets - a simple procedure that implants a small chip under the skin of an animal's back. Because it's interior, it can't fall off over the years.
"We’ve reunited quite a few pets with the microchip with their owners," says Ives. "It’s really an effective tool in ... helping a lost pet find its way home."
In fact, Lil Man's microchip helped him out a second time this weekend, after he was separated from Snipes' children at the park.
Snipes got the second call just yesterday that the Humane Society had Lil Man safe and sound.
"This isn't the first time we've been reunited with an animal because of [micro-chipping]," Snipes said. "It's the best $35 you could spend."
Source: http://tacoma.komonews.com/news/community-spirit/744385-lost-dog-returns-owner-after-six-years-missing
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