A Tennessee dog made it back home,13 years after going missing.
It sounds too incredible to be true, but it is on the internet, so it must be. (Right?)
Thirteen years ago, a horrified teenager watched out his window as a man in a pickup truck snatched his family’s Yorkshire Terrier from their front lawn and drove away with the tiny dog.
Who does something like that? Why would anyone do something like that?
We could ponder these questions all day, but that won’t bring anyone’s beloved missing dog back home.
Ask any pet owner, and they will just about lose their mind even imagining the possibility of this happening.
My dogs were missing for two hours once. I was beside myself. It was a Sunday night and the shelters were closed, but I called anyway. I called everyone I could think of calling, including the non-emergency Grand Blanc Police Department phone number. The nice lady on the phone promised she would “pass my number along to anyone who called saying they’d found two dogs.”
Sure enough, the phone rang about an hour later. The caller said, “I have two fat dogs in my garage, and they sure seem to miss you.” I felt like I had won the lottery. I didn’t even care that the man called my dogs fat. They were found.
The concept I can’t fathom is: what I would do if my pet was missing for weeks, months, even years. I have to believe that, with each passing day, the hope of ever finding them would fade. The thought of it is almost unbearable.
So, imagine getting a phone call from Animal Control telling you they had your dog that had been missing … for 13 years.
That’s what happened to this Tennessee family.
A woman brought the Yorkie, named Connor, into Metro Nashville Animal Control, after she found him wandering around her neighborhood.
Animal Control workers “scanned” Connor, who had been microchipped all those years earlier, and that little piece of technology turned out to be his ticket back home.
All the contact information was up-to-date. Animal Control contacted Connor’s family. Voila! He was back home. He had bad teeth, infected eyes and a sore leg, but that little doggie made it back home.
I am not saying a microchip guarantees your pet will make it back home, but it sure improves the odds. The trick is keeping in touch with the microchip company, and keeping your information updated, should you move or change your phone number.
Of course, you should also make sure your pet has a nice, low-tech collar with their name on it and your phone number, too. I’ve found enough lost dogs to know this tried and true method still works.
If your pet does get lost, try not to panic. Remember, too, that a good photo and a carefully placed social media post have led to plenty of happy reunions that haven’t taken 13 years.
So, hold your pet a little tighter, watch them a little closer, and in the event they are lost, do everything you can to make sure they can find the way back home to you.
