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The Mahaffey family adopted Missy, a St. Bernard from a Colorado animal shelter in 2011. Brenda Mahaffy had planned to train Missy as a service dog for her special needs daughter, but Missy was stolen from the family’s Pueblo, Colorado backyard before she could.
Five years later, on September 15, 2016, animal control officers in Festus, Missouri brought in a stray dog that actually turned out to be Missy, a very long way from home.
Although Missy was microchipped, the family had not kept her microchip registration current and the information linked to it was not accurate and was out of date. Thankfully, a persistent shelter volunteer refused to give up and eventually tracked down the Mahaffey family with the exciting news that the dog they’d been missing for 5 years was finally found.
No one knows how Missy made it from Colorado to Missouri, or how she wound up on the streets as a stray, but the family are planning lots of love, pets, and long walks to make up for lost time.
Please remember, microchipping your dog is the very best way to ensure they make it back home should they ever become lost. And, keeping your microchip registration current and up-to-date is absolutely vital. Not all shelters are as persistent as the one that made sure Missy returned home.
