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Imagine getting a phone call, from a shelter more than 1,000 miles away that your missing dog was found… 7 years after he’d been stolen!
Sgt. Pepper was 6 years old when he went missing from his Florida home in 2014. His owner discovered a “found dog” post for him on Craigslist, but the dog had already been claimed and picked up by someone who was not his real owner. The Yorkie-mix was reported stolen to police and his microchip registration was updated with the stolen status.
Over the years that followed, Sgt. Pepper’s owner continued to update his microchip registration as phone numbers or addresses changed. It was this simple act—and never giving up—that ultimately led the lost dog back home.
Eaton County Animal Control in Charlotte, Michigan received a call about a stray dog wandering on the south end of town. An officer found the Yorkie-mix and brought him back to the shelter where he was scanned for a microchip. Surprised to find the dog registered to an owner more than 1,000 miles away in Florida, they made the call. That’s when they learned the dog had been stolen 7 years earlier.
Sgt. Pepper’s owner immediately flew to Michigan to be reunited with her lost dog, now 13 years old. And, Animal Control staff say it was obvious the little dog remembered her after all their years apart.
“The moral of this story is if you have your pet microchipped, hope is always still on the table,” Rebecca Neal, the lead animal control officer for Eaton County Animal Control told WZZM.
