Natty, shepherd mix

Linden man reunited with dog in Jackson five months after losing her in Fenton
By Will Forgrave
on October 14, 2013

JACKSON, MI – Linden resident Daane Birchmeier was convinced that his 11-month old dog Natty was gone for good after she wandered off as he worked on his truck in May.

Linden resident Daane Birchmeier, 21, is reunited with his dog Natty at the Jackson County Animal Shelter after the 11-month-old sheperd mix wandered off in early May.

But five months and more than 70 miles later, Birchmeier and his dog were reunited last week at the Jackson County Animal Shelter, 3370 Spring Arbor Road in Jackson.

"We have no idea how she ended up here," Birchmeier, 21, said. "I'm just ecstatic to have her back."

Birchmeier said he adopted Natty from a shelter in Fenton in January. For five months, the duo lived in Birchmeier's Linden apartment.

"She's the kind of dog that always sticks around and is really chill and relaxed, even as a puppy," Birchmeier said. "She's just a really, really good dog."

Birchmeier said he took Natty to his parents' house in Fenton in early May to work on his truck. Nearly three hours later, Natty was gone.

"She was just wandering around me as I was working, and then I noticed after I was cleaning up that she was gone," Birchmeier said. "My parents live next to a park so we think she might have run off into it, but there's no telling."

Jackson County Animal Shelter Administrative Clerk Debbie Drouin said the dog was picked up by animal control in the 1800 block of E. South Street in Jackson the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 7.

"She's relatively healthy compared with some of the other animals we get in here," Drouin said. "Luckily, she had a microchip so we were able to get in touch with Daane right away."

Used to keep track of pets, microchipping is a procedure during which a veterinarian injects a chip about the size of a grain of rice just under the skin of a dog or cat. A scanner can then be used to glean information such as the owner's name, phone number and address.

Birchmeier picked up Natty on Wednesday, Oct. 9.

"I walked in and she immediately started barking and jumping up and down," Birchmeier said. "I was like 'oh man, did she turn into that kind of dog when I was gone?' I was worried about her.

"The shelter worker, though, said Natty must have really missed me because she had been moping around the last couple of days," he said. "She almost knocked me over when she came running down the hall."

Drouin, who snapped a photo of the reunited pair, said she couldn't keep the dog still to take a photo.

"It was really cute," she said. "She was so excited to see her owner again."

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2013/10/man_loses_his_dog_in_linden_re.html