Benji, a bichon

Weeks ago, my friend Mary had sent me an email with a picture of a lost dog, and the following appeal:

Guardians of Animals is Offering $1,000 Reward for Information Leading to the Safe Return of Benji
A couple's car is stolen with their dog in the backseat, and Best Friends was contacted by Ray from Guardians Of Angels to help find Benji. The owner is desperate to get their dog back. And authorities from Georgia to South Carolina and Indiana are desperate to get their hands on the South Carolina man, who they believe stole the car, the dog and is wreaking havoc across the U.S. "There's a lot of good people in this world," Linda said on Wednesday, as she choked back tears. She is hoping one of them will find her dog, Benji. "He slept between us for the last nine years. He’s our whole life," she said. Schneider told us, "We were gone 20 minutes. We had left our Honda CRV with our pet Benji. When we came out it was gone."

Then while searching for stories for my blog, I was thrilled to find an answer to the appeal, in the story below.

Dog reunited with owners after month-long, multi-state search
Posted at: 09/18/2009 6:59 AM WHEC.com

For the first time in nearly a month full of drama, Benji the dog from Wolcott is back with his owners. He was found at an animal shelter in Virginia Wednesday and a microchip was used to confirm it was him.

"We came for Benji. Got a little white dog here that you don't know what to do with?" Benji’s owner Linda Schneider said. Sometimes happy endings really do happen. Benji and his owners Bob and Linda Schneider were reunited in Edinburg, Virginia after being apart for a month.

The couple was in North Carolina when police say a wanted criminal, Jason Osborne, stole their vehicle with Benji inside.

"It was the worst, emptiest feeling you could ever imagine," Schneider said. But they didn't lose hope and started searching. Meanwhile, Ernie Walters with animal control in Shenandoah County, Virginia found Benji and knew something was up.

"This is the type of dog you don't just drop. Something else was behind this story," Walters said.

Then as luck would have it the Schneiders saw Benji's picture online on Petfinder and learned he was at the Shenandoah County Animal Shelter.

Many animals are taken to the shelter and they are all checked for microchips but microchips can be missed. Sometimes they migrate after they've been in for a while. So, sometimes it’s necessary to scan the animal more than once, which is what helter workers did and confirmed they had Benji.

"Overjoyed, overjoyed,” Schneider said. We just weren't ready to let him go yet, we just weren't ready."

Benji is safe and sound with his owners again, and police recovered their stolen vehicle but the suspect, Jason Osborne, is still on the loose. Police say he's wanted in at least 12 states.

Source: http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S1145474.shtml?cat=565
Reunion video at: http://www.youtube.com/guardiansofanimals#play/uploads/0/cgUinfYVTOU
Printer friendly version here
Another story here with video: http://www.wcnc.com/video/?z=y&nvid=399326

And from the website of the Guardians of Animals, one of the organizations assisting with the search:

Benji was found at a Virginia shelter yesterday. This morning, Benji was reunited with his ecstatic family and we were there to witness this joyous occasion. Tears and laughs flowed simultaneously by the family and by-standers. "I usually don't cry or get emotional, but this (watching the reunion) got to me," said Ray Jones, Vice-President of Guardians of Animals. Founders of Guardians of Animals searched endlessly along the interstate and highways of NC and southern VA, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning, searching for Benji. We here at Guardians of Animals would like to thank all of those who called or emailed us with information. We were brought in on the case after we were contacted by the Jonesville Police Department and asked to help Linda Schneider find her missing dog, Benji. We met with Linda and let her know we were doing all we could to help reunite her with Benji. We gave her a ray of hope that Benji would be found. We also advised Linda that Benji could be in a shelter and they missed the microchip when they scanned him. Best Friends Animal Society (www.bestfriends.com) also helped in the search by putting out an email blast to 20,000 people regarding Benji's plight. While Guardians of Animals was posting fliers along the interstate, Linda was printing more fliers for us to distribute and searching the internet, Linda saw Benji up for adoption at the Shenandoah County Animal Shelter. Guardians of Animals was also alerting state and federal authorities in the Eastern U.S. to be on the lookout for Benji and the suspect, Jason Osbourne. Guardians of Animals will continue to assist law enforcement until Jason Osbourne is apprehended. Please consider donating so we can continue to help animals and their families have happy endings like this one. Every little bit helps!