Happy ending lost dog tales! Read stories about dogs that have gone missing and were later reunited with their families. Learn from the stories, and if you are missing your own dog right now, hopefully you will be encouraged by the successes of others before you. (If you just like happy ending stories, that's what you will find here.)
For recent stories, visit Lost Dogs Found on Facebook. (Sorry, I'm not posting stories here as much, and am posting a little more often to the Facebook page.)
Pet and his “pet mom” reunited after 4 years, thanks to microchip
by Pima County News
on Nov. 07, 2013
Wednesday, November 6 was any normal day for Bianca Beltran – until she opened a letter in the mail from Pima Animal Care Center.
“I opened the note and I just screamed and sat on the floor I was so surprised,” said Beltran, who drove immediately over to the shelter at 4000 N. Silverbell Road to pick up Mockie, the dog she had lost four years earlier.
Thanks to a microchip, Bianca was reunited with the family pet she’d had for more than two years until the active little dog escaped from her granddaughter at the park. She searched the shelters for months and always watched for him at the park until finally she gave up. “I always prayed that someone had him and he was being treated well,” she said.
But recently the dog, known as Nido, had been turned in by a woman who had suffered a personal setback and could no longer keep the dog she had gotten from a friend. But when animal care staff scanned the Chihuahua mix for a microchip, they found the chip and reached out to his original owner.
Beltran and volunteers who helped are convinced Mockie remembered her, and when he put his face on her shoulder, everyone cried. Beltran said she’s thrilled at the click-click of little paws on the floor and reports he hasn’t left her side since coming home. Decked out in a new leash, he remembers the rules of the house and has already been out walking, since he needs to lose a little weight.
She said she hopes her story helps share the benefits of microchipping.
“It’s been wonderful and I can still barely believe it,” she said.
Dog reunites with Youngsville family after four years
Tara Lynn
September 16
Youngsville, N.C. — A Youngsville family reunited this week with the dog they thought they lost forever.
After four years, Brandy Metcalf, her husband Dave and their three children got to take Cassey, the dog they had rescued from the SPCA 11 years ago, home again.
A Youngsville family reunited this week with the dog they thought they lost forever. After four years, Brandy Metcalf, her husband Dave and their three children got to take Cassey, the dog they had rescued from the SPCA 11 years ago, home again.
"It was a beautiful experience. You're just in shock. You feel like this couldn't be the miracle that you want it to be, that it's too good to be true," Metcalf said.
The couple had just had a third child when Metcalf's sister asked if Cassey could come stay with her in Charlotte.
"At that time, when you have a newborn in the house, things were crowded," she said. "My sister lived alone in Charlotte ... she doesn't like to be by herself and they had a good relationship, so with hesitation, we let (Cassey) go."
After a couple months, the family went to visit their beloved pet. But Cassey, startled by some nearby construction noise, had run away.
"She's a very sensitive dog. Loud noises, construction, if anything like that is going on, she gets nervous," Metcalf said. "She got away from my sister."
Months passed with no sign of the dog, and the family gave up on trying to find it.
"We gave up hope a long time ago, but every day she was mentioned in our house," Metcalf said. "My daughter just said two days prior to (finding the dog) that 'I wish we had our Cassey back.'"
Then, last week, the family got a call that Cassey had been found. Without a collar or tags, the people who found Cassey relied on a microchip to track down the owners.
"They had been searching for us for a couple of days and got our information through the vet's clinic hospital," Metcalf said. "Unfortunately, the information was incorrect because it was from 11 years ago. That's why updating these chips is a must."
The people who found Cassey didn't give up. They eventually tracked down Metcalf's mother, who called to relay the news.
"My husband was telling me, 'Brandy, they found Cassey,' and I said, 'That just can't be,'" We need to leave right now to see if that's really her," she said.
They drove three hours to confirm the good news and came home with the dog they had never stopped missing.
"When we got out of the car and called her name, and she came running up to us, it let us know for sure that yes, she remembered us," Metcalf said. "She came right up and jumped in the van. She was ready to go home."
Jacob Metcalf, 8, was only 4 when Cassey went missing, but said he had no trouble recognizing the dog.
"I was amazed," he said. "She really loved me when I was a bit younger. She used to round us up in the yard."
It was an emotional reunion, and the family was immediately reminded of Cassey's "caring charisma."
"(The tears) were rolling like waterfalls," Metcalf said. "There is never such a thing as 'It's just a dog.' She, to us, is our first-born child."
Family, Dog Reunited After 4 Years Apart
Microchip Used To Find Owner, Police Say
January 3, 2012
SEVERNA PARK, Md. -- A North Carolina family got a late Christmas gift when Maryland police helped reunite them with a dog that had been missing for more than four years.
Dodger, a Collie mix, went missing from the Willey family's Owings Mills, MD home in 2007 while family members were away. The family conducted a search and contacted local shelters, but the dog wasn't found.
Police said a good Samaritan found an older Collie mix in Severna Park on Dec. 27 and took it to Anne Arundel County Animal Control. The dog was found on Honeysuckle Lane.
Dodger was reunited with family members in late December.
The dog was microchipped, and animal control workers contacted the microchip company for information about the dog's owners, police said.
The company was able to contact a member of the Willey family in Virginia, and that family member put the company in touch with the dog's owner, who now lives in Cedar Ridge.
The owner, William Douglas Willey, and his sons visited the police department Dec. 30 to be reunited with the dog.
Police said the dog had abrasions on his face and teeth missing and that it wasn't clear where the dog had been.
"Dodger’s return to his family underscores the importance of using microchips for tracking and also registering our pets."
- County Executive John Leopold
"Animal control staff are elated to reunite 'Dodger' with his family and wish them the best of luck in the future," the police department said in a news release.
Authorities and county officials are using the case as an example of why microchips are important for pet owners.
“Dodger’s return to his family underscores the importance of using microchips for tracking and also registering our pets," said County Executive John Leopold.
A microchip can be implanted by a veterinarian.
Source: http://www.wxii12.com/r/30125397/detail.html
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Rancho Palos Verdes family reunites with dog after 4 years lost
Rob Hayes
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (KABC) -- Four years ago, a black Labrador retriever mix did what most Labs do: bust out of his fenced backyard.
But on that day in 2007, Chuck didn't come back to his Palos Verdes Estates home.
"He was gone. We looked everywhere. We drove up and down the streets," said Chuck's owner, Lisa Nakkim.
The Nakkim family was desperate. They began posting flyers around their neighborhood, but to no avail.
Years went by and the Nakkims and their four children began to talk about replacing Chuck.
Not too far away, Torrance city worker Linda Sheldon recently spotted Chuck wandering the streets as she was walking to work. Only the pooch didn't look like he did on the flyers. The once 100-pound dog had lost 40 pounds. You could count his ribs.
Tug of love battle over lost dog
By Allan Tunningley
9:00am Thursday 9th June 2011
A pet puppy which disappeared four years ago has been reunited with its original owners after a ‘tug of love’ court battle.
Rinty, from the DogLost website when she was first posted in 2007
Rinty the terrier vanished in January 2007 when she was just eight months’ old, leaving the Beaty family, of Troutbeck, distraught.
Mum Pamela Beaty, husband Brian and kids Victoria and James spent months putting up posters around the area and notifying vets about their missing pet.
After hearing nothing, they eventually gave up hope of ever seeing Rinty again.
Then out of the blue Mrs Beaty received a letter from the pet-chipping company Anibase saying someone had applied to have the details on the terrier’s chip changed.
It was four years, two months and three days after she went missing. But the family’s anxious wait for Rinty’s return was to go agonisingly on for several more weeks. Mrs Beaty said: “We were delighted to know that Rinty was still alive, but Anibase said they could not reveal who had her because of the Data Protection Act.”
She said Cumbria Police traced Rinty but at first said they could not help as it was a civil matter.
But after three weeks, they relented and revealed Rinty was living with David and Karen Akister in Allithwaite.
They knew her as Tess, a name given by her previous owner, who had died.
Mrs Beaty wrote to the couple asking for Rinty back; but the Akisters – who had looked after the terrier since last December – refused.
In papers submitted to Kendal County Court, they said the previous owner - named only as Debbie - had bought the terrier in good faith through a shop advert at eight months old.
Last Wednesday, a judge at Kendal County Court agreed with the Beatys – and Rinty was returned.
Mrs Beaty said: “It’s been an emotional time but it’s wonderful to have her back. She soon settled in and resp-onded to her name again.”
Mr Akister said: “My wife and I are both devastated.”
Source: http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/9072151.Tug_of_love_battle_over_lost_dog/
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Dog missing for four years reunited with family
By Karen Kucher, Union-Tribune BREAKING NEWS TEAM
June 16, 2006
Jaclyn and Monica Najjar picked up their boxer, Alex, from the county animal shelter in San Diego Friday. They said the dog's personality seemed the same, and that she seemed to remember them, despite having been gone for four years.
SAN DIEGO – After four years, Alex the boxer is finally home.
A beloved pet that had been missing since March 2002 was reunited with her owners early Friday morning after workers at the county's central shelter found a microchip under its fur.
The dog had been relinquished by its current owner.
Lisa Najjar and two of her three daughters, Monica and Jaclyn, picked up the dog first thing Friday morning, arriving even before the shelter opened.
“Alex went straight from the shelter to the vet and then to get a bath,” Najjar said.
Najjar said no one in the family believed it at first when shelter employees called late Thursday to say they had found Alex.
“We are just really, really happy,” she said. “She looks good. She looks healthy. She's in good condition and we're thrilled to have her back.
“It kind of feels like she hasn't been gone, in a way.”
Shelter workers routinely scan animals brought in for microchips, using an identification system that stores information about a pet's owner in a database.
The dog vanished from the family's fenced backyard in Encinitas back in 2002, Lisa Najjar said. The Najjars looked for her for weeks at local veterinarian offices, pet stores and shelters. The family suspected the pure breed may have been stolen.
Two years ago, they got another dog, a papillon, and named it Metro. The two dogs were to meet Friday afternoon.
The man who relinquished the boxer told animal control workers he was unable to keep it because he was moving into a condo, Najjar said.
Johnson said the man said he had bought the dog for $100 in Escondido about three years ago from someone who claimed to be the dog's owner.
He had named the dog “Rosie” and told county shelter workers he was amazed to learn its original owners were found via its microchip. He could not be reached Friday.
Much has changed in the years since Alex turned up missing.
The three Najjar daughters have become teenagers. Jaclyn Najjar, 18, graduated from high school on Friday just hours after the family picked up Alex.
“I think she remembers us. She is really open and she seems like the exact same dog,” said Monica Najjar, 15.
Alex also will have to get used to a new house. In the years she was gone, the family moved from Olivenhain to Cardiff.
“We got her as a puppy for Christmas and had her microchipped right away,” Lisa Najjar said. “ Thank God that we did.”
Source: http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060616-1353-bn16doggy.html
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PVE: Dog gone - no more
By Art Marroquin Staff Writer
Posted: 03/07/2011
Alexa, Kai, Lisa and Koa Nakkim get reacquainted with Chuck, their dog who was missing for four years.
Every night for four years, Eric and Lisa Nakkim prayed that their missing dog, Chuck, was safe and might even come home someday.
Their prayers, spanning more than 1,500 days, were answered Friday when a woman called their home to report that she found the long-lost black Labrador/pit bull mix.
"Every night, especially when it was cold, we would think about that dog and wonder where he was," said Eric Nakkim, an emergency room doctor at Torrance Memorial Medical Center.
"It's just like seeing a long-lost friend," he said. "I'm ecstatic and overwhelmed with emotion."
The Palos Verdes Estates family adopted Chuck in April 2002, when he was just a 2-month-old puppy.
But as he grew, Chuck made a habit of sneaking out of a fenced backyard, usually through a gate that was left ajar by one of the family's four children. The mischievous mutt always found his way home and sat by the gate, patiently waiting to get back to the safety of his family's yard.
Chuck performed one of his infamous escape acts on Jan. 7, 2007, but this time, he didn't come home.
"We don't know if he got lost or got picked up by someone," Eric Nakkim said.
The family hoped someone would find Chuck and call the phone number etched into a round, silver tag that hung from a black collar bearing metal spikes.
The Nakkims distributed fliers plastered with Chuck's mug. Ads were placed in the newspaper. A year had passed and the Nakkims feared the worst.
It's still unknown what happened to Chuck in the ensuing years.
Eric Nakkim thought Chuck could have become lost after wandering off. Lisa Nakkim said she hoped the friendly dog was keeping company with a lonely homeless person.
"We just gave up hope on ever getting him back," Eric Nakkim said.
The family's despair quickly turned to elation when they received a phone call from Linda Sheldon.
Sheldon had just got off a bus about 6:30 a.m. and was walking to her job with the environmental division at Torrance City Hall when she spotted a dog near the intersection of Maple Avenue and El Dorado Street.
Sheldon, who has helped strays before, called to the dog.
"He was a little shy, but he came to me," Sheldon said. "I could see he was very nice and very homeless from his condition."
The thin, friendly animal was wearing a black collar with metal spikes that were worn to the nubs.
Attached was a silver tag with lettering that was worn smooth, but still legible, except for the last digit of a phone number.
The dirty, smelly dog trotted alongside Sheldon to her office. After she gave the dog some food and water, Sheldon began calling numbers in hopes of finding the owners.
Her first attempt led to a disconnected line.
She dialed again, changing the last digit of the phone number. This time, Sheldon reached Lisa Nakkim.
"She described Chuck exactly: big, black and friendly," Lisa Nakkim recalled.
The Nakkims picked up the dog from Sheldon on Friday afternoon and thanked her for contacting them.
"I'm just happy that he's gone from rags to riches," Sheldon said.
After a daylong visit to the vet on Friday, Chuck finally went home with his family. A checkup found that the 100-pound pooch had withered down to 60 pounds, likely from malnutrition and dehydration. He was sent home with a prescription to clear up a urinary tract infection.
Additionally, all the gates to the Nakkim home are now secured. But Chuck has taken to sleeping indoors since he arrived home.
"We can't have this happen again," Lisa Nakkim said. "We're just so thankful that this good Samaritan took the time to check on a missing dog, and that he's finally home with us."
Another, printer-friendly version of the story is here
Ooops, I repeated this story later when I found a video that makes the story far more memorable than this version. Oh well . . . http://lostdogsfound.blogspot.com/2011/06/chuck-black-lab.html
Stolen puppy reunites with family after four years
by Nadia Crow/SourceMedia Group News
Posted March 19, 2011 12:27 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS-After four years, an Eastern Iowa family finally reunites with a lost relative, the family dog. The Hodson family eagerly awaited their four-year-old Labrador mix Gretchen’s arrival from Washington state at The Eastern Iowa Airport. It’s the story of the missing piece to the Hodson family puzzle.
“Nervous, well beyond nervous,” said Margaret Hodson who reunited with the family dog Saturday.
Margaret Hodson with Gretchen
Back in 2007, the Hodsons learned terrible news; their Labrador mix Gretchen was stolen.
“We knocked on people’s doors we posted signs everywhere. I called all the veterinary clinics and we continued to do this for at least a year, a year and a half if not more,” said Hodson.
“I remembered her I didn’t forget her I still remembered that she got stolen,” said Meghan Case who reunited with the family dog Saturday.
The Hodsons were stationed in Washington while husband, Travis was in the US Army. Since his deployment to Afghanistan, the family has since moved back to Iowa. But there was one missing link.
Travis Hodson gets a doggie kiss from long lost family pet Gretchen.
“I thought for sure we lost her I thought for sure I wasn’t going to see her again,” said Hodson.
After waiting four years, their stolen puppy was found safe and sound wandering near a lake in Fort Lewis, Washington. She arrived at The Eastern Iowa Airport on an American Airlines flight Saturday morning to open arms.
“It was pretty neat, I love to see her back,” said Case.
Four-year-old Blaine Hodson (right) looks at the family's long lost dog Gretchen while Maggie Hodson (center) talks to her daughter Meghan, 9, (second from right) after the family picked up the dog at The Eastern Iowa Airport on Saturday, March 19, 2011, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Also pictured is Travis Hodson (left). Gretchen was stolen from the Hodson's home in Washington state nearly four years ago. The dog was identified through a microchip after she was turned into an animal shelter after someone found her wandering the streets.
The kids have grown up and Gretchen has too.
“She wasn’t as big as this now,” said Case.
But she fits right in.
“She’s been a protector, she’s been loyal, a good family member,” said Hodson.
Two-year-old Corbin Hodson (left) stands with his mother Maggie Hodson of Wayland, Iowa, as she holds the tail of her long lost dog Gretchen after she and her family picked up the dog at The Eastern Iowa Airport on Saturday, March 19, 2011, in southwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Gretchen was stolen from the Hodson's home in Washington state nearly four years ago. The dog was identified through a microchip after she was turned into an animal shelter after someone found her wandering the streets. Travis Hodson said the family looked for the dog for two years by going door-to-door, putting signs up and placing notices on Craigslist
A piece of technology, a microchip, helped put this family back together.
“I’m really glad we had her chipped because if we hadn’t we wouldn’t of been able to ever find her,” said Hodson.
After a long flight from the west coast, Gretchen and the Hodsons can now move on to the next chapter, together again.
Lost Dog Reunited With Owner Four Years On
Author: Nick Mays
Thursday, 03 March 2011
A MISSING dog has been reunited with his owner after four years, thanks to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
Clifford the Staffordshire Bull Terrier went missing in 2008, during which time 28 dog years have passed. Clifford escaped from his home in Enfield after the door was accidentally left open, and owner Mark Lapinid spent months searching for him. Mark registered lost reports with local councils, the police and Battersea’s Lost Dogs & Cats Line.
Mark had previously microchipped Clifford, and knew if ever the dog appeared at a vet or rescue centre, the microchip would show Mark’s contact details. But as the years passed, Mark began to lose hope of ever seeing his much loved dog.
However earlier this month Clifford was brought into Battersea by a member of the public. Battersea staff scanned him for a microchip and quickly located Mark’s details, before getting in touch.
Mark explains: “When I heard from Battersea I came straight down to the centre, I couldn’t believe it, and my whole family were so excited. We all thought Clifford was gone forever.”
As soon as Clifford saw Mark he jumped up excitedly, wagging his tail and licking his long-lost owner. Mark adds: “Seeing Clifford again is amazing. I don’t know what he’s been up to for four years, but I hope he’s been well looked after, perhaps living with another family.”
Clifford was one and a half years old when he went missing, so had grown considerably over the years, but Mark recognised him straight away. He says: “Clifford was the runt of the litter, but he had a little white marking on his chest in the shape of a ‘T’, and my family are Tottenham fans, so he was made for us. He’s still got the mark now. I’d recognise him anywhere.”
Battersea Lost & Found Assistant Kayleigh Parr helped Mark when he visited Battersea. She explains: “It was fantastic to be able to reunite Mark and Clifford after four years. It really highlights the importance of microchipping, because it meant we could quickly locate Mark’s details on the central microchip database. It’s also really important to keep your contact details up to date with your chip provider, as you never know when your pet could go missing.”
Anyone who loses or finds a dog or cat should call Battersea’s Lost Dogs & Cats Line. In 2009, Battersea received over 6,000 lost reports from owners whose pets had gone missing and nearly 10,000 found reports from people who had found a dog or cat, successfully reuniting 1,989 dogs and 100 cats with their owners.
