Rivers, chocolate lab

Long-lost dog on way home to Arkansas family
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

Zoe, cava-poo

VB woman reunited with stolen dog
Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - A Virginia Beach woman was reunited with her dog Wednesday morning.

Grace Gavin told WAVY.com "Zoe" was stolen from her car, while she ran into the Target on Military Highway on March 27. When she returned, the 3 1/2-month-old puppy was gone.

"I looked under the chair, under the backseat, like she was nowhere," Gavin said. " I was like completely shocked then hysteria started setting in. I was looking around the parking lot..."

Gavin called police and filed a report.

She told WAVY.com a witness saw a suspicious man in the parking lot.

Police say it is common for people to steal dogs then try to re-sell them for hundreds of dollars.

Grace called WAVY News 10 Wednesday morning and said Zoe was spotted near the intersection of Norview Avenue and Atwood Avenue in Norfolk. She said a woman called her and said she found the dog in her neighborhood.

VB woman reunited with stolen dog: wavy.com

Grace said Target has surveillance of the puppy thief, but police have not released the video.

Source: http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/va_beach/vb-womans-dog-stolen-from-car

Peanut, rat terrier/poodle mix

Lost dog gets back home after 4 years
Microchip helps officers, HSSM return Peanut
By Tammy Smith, Sun Herald
Friday, Mar. 23, 2012

GULFPORT -- Laughter and tears of joy -- sprinkled with a lot of cries of “aw!” -- were in abundance at the Humane Society of South Mississippi on Friday afternoon, thanks to a scrappy little Peanut.

Peanut, a rat terrier/poodle mix, gets reacquainted with his owner, Danielle Weatherford, after being missing for four years.

That would be Peanut the 6-year-old rat terrier/poodle mix, a black-and-tan bundle of wire-haired joy who went through a four-year odyssey from Ocean Springs to Gulfport before he was reunited with his owner.

Danielle Weatherford of Ocean Springs got Peanut as a Christmas present in 2006.

“I picked her out, and my mom adopted her as a gift for me. His little face -- he just stole my heart,” she said Friday afternoon as she waited for her first glimpse of Peanut in four years.

“I was living with my parents, and then I moved, but where I was living, you couldn’t have pets,” Weatherford said. Her aunt took Peanut in.

“She went to work one day, then when she got home, she couldn’t find him,” Weatherford said. “We looked and looked, but we never could find him.”

Then, Thursday night, Weatherford got a call from her mother.

“She said, ‘You remember Peanut? They found him.’ I just couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Nobody knows how Peanut survived for the past four years or how he got from Ocean Springs to Gulfport or why he made the journey. One thing is sure: He and Weatherford wouldn’t have been reunited had it not been for his microchip.

On Monday, Gulfport animal control officer Dorothy Payne saw the little dog at a residence on O’Neal Road. She scanned him for a microchip, a routine procedure for the animal control officers, and was surprised to find he did have one. Her surprise grew when she learned the owner was listed as an Ocean Springs resident.

At first, Payne feared the contact information was no longer accurate -- after all, the dog was about 30 miles away from his home.

“I thought for sure that the microchip information was just out of date,” she told HSSM.

Payne called the associated phone number and left a message and, to her surprise, got a call back a few days later from Donna Nelson, Weatherford’s mother.

On Friday, Peanut was wiggly and sweet, and Weatherford was ecstatic and teary-eyed as her dog alternately gave her kisses and squirmed down to visit with a couple of Pomeranians in the animal shelter’s gift shop.

“Can we go home now?” she quietly asked as she brushed away tears and smiled.

Source: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/03/23/3839009/lost-dog-gets-back-home-after.html?storylink=addthis#.T29-j48I-v8.facebook#storylink=cpy

Haley, schnauzer

Dog missing after Meyerland burglary found in Montrose .
by KHOU.com staff
Posted on March 18, 2012 at 4:07 PM

HOUSTON – Good news for a Meyerland family whose dogs disappeared after a burglary at their home – one of the missing pups has been found.

Haley, a 12-year-old miniature Schnauzer, was found near Montrose and West Gray, in the parking lot of Christie’s doughnuts.

Haley, along with her canine brother Max, a 5-year-old Maltese, had been missing since March 9, when someone broke into their home in Meyerland area.

The Fisher family said the thieves took $21,000 worth of computers and jewelry, along with the dogs.

"We didn’t care about all the jewelry that was stolen. We didn’t care about the computers that were stolen. Our most precious jewels that were taken were our puppies, Max and Haley," said Karen Fisher.

As of Friday, the suspects in the burglary were still at large, and Max was still missing.

But Precinct 5 deputy constables increased patrols in the Fishers’ neighborhood and were asking anyone with information on the break-ins to contact them.

Source: http://www.khou.com/community/blogs/animal-attraction/Dog-missing-after-Meyerland-burglary-found-in-Montrose-142954325.html

As of the date of this post, Max the Maltese is still missing: