Allie & Bama, bassett hounds

Stolen dogs returned to owners 5 years later
By Laura MossMon
Jul 23 2012

The basset hounds were stolen from a Tennessee home, but turned up in Georgia years later. Now they have been reunited with their owners.

A pair of basset hounds named Allie and 'Bama were reunited with their owners, Brenda Travis and Tom Shields, on July 14, more than five years after the dogs disappeared.

The hounds were stolen from the couple’s Murfreesboro, Tenn., home, and although Travis and Shields searched for months, they were unable to find any trace of their pets. They didn’t expect to ever see them again.

"We would look in neighborhoods and just drive around. We drove around for months just looking," Travis told KSDK-TV.

But a few weeks ago the couple, who now live in Wichita, Kan., got a call from kennel technician Becky Davis of the Paulding County Animal Shelter in Georgia. She told Travis that the dogs had been found in the parking lot of a Dallas, Ga., tractor supply store on July 5.

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Shelter workers used a microchip detector on the dogs and found that one of them had a chip with three phone numbers. Davis tried the first two numbers, but they were no longer in service. The third number rang Travis’ phone.

"I asked her, 'Do you happen to have two basset hounds'?" Davis told KSDK-TV.

"And I said, 'No ma'am, ours got stolen five-and-a-half years ago'," Travis replied.

"I said, 'Well, we have them here at the pound'," Davis told her.

That’s when Travis said the tears started.

Volunteers from Guardian Angel Basset Rescue helped reunite Allie and ‘Bama with their owners, driving the dogs to meet Travis and Shields in St. Louis.

Hundreds of miles and half a decade later, the Basset Hounds are now back where they belong.

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You can watch a video of Allie and 'Bama and their happy owners below.


Source: http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/stolen-dogs-returned-to-owners-5-years-later#