Baby, Boxer

Microchip helps owner get reunited with dog missing for over year
By Jessica Flores, FOX 10 News
Dec 23, 2013

PHOENIX - It is the best Christmas gift a valley man could ask for: After months of hoping "Baby," his missing boxer, would return home, she's back, just in time for the holidays.

Baby took off in November of 2012 and now, 13 months later, she's made her way back home thanks to a microchip implant.

Her owner doesn't know where she's been all that time, but he says this is the second time she will be considered his Christmas present.

Baby, a 5-year-old boxer, is in the comfort of her home.

"She's a loving dog. She doesn't ask for anything else but love, she doesn't play with toys, she just wants to be fed and loved everyday, that's it," said Timothy Costello, Baby's owner.

Timothy Costello got baby from a boxer rescue four years ago, right around Christmas and just after he lost his first boxer to cancer.

Baby rarely left his side.

"They say dog is man's best friend, but she was literally my best friend," said Costello.

But late last year, Costello came home and found Baby gone. The gate was left open.

Costello looked everywhere, but baby never came home.

But now one year later, someone turned the dog in to the humane society, and thanks to Baby's microchip, owner and dog are reunited just in time for the holidays.

"There's no better gift than to be able to get a loved on back that you thought was gone forever," said Costello.

Baby was found 15 miles from her home. She had been abused; she was about 20 pounds underweight and she had a seven inch gash in her leg.

"She needed about four to five days every day for the wound to be cleaned and after that they finally stitched her up," said Costello.

Baby's only been back home for a week and she is still recovering, but now she's safe and at home spending this Christmas with her family and best friend.

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"She was a 2009 Christmas gift. Now she's my 2013 Christmas gift," said Costello.

Costello says he plans to get baby a tracking device so she never lost again.

Source: http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/24287113/2013/12/23/missing-dog-reunited-with-owner-after-going-missing-for-year