We never forget our dogs. That is true of your very first puppy you got as a Christmas present as a kid up to that furry pooch snuggled next to you right now. It turns out that our dogs don’t forget us either. You’ll want to keep that in mind when you consider a recent dog and owner reunion that was 12 years in the making.
Like cats, dogs are curious by nature and if given the chance they will go off to explore. Apparently, that is what happened to fox terrier, Dutchess, when she went missing from her Florida home. That was on February 28, 2007.
Jump ahead to this past October. Dutchess was found hungry and shivering under a shed in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. That is certainly a long way from her original Florida home. She was also clearly in an environment that wasn’t going to be good for her health especially since she was now 14-years-old. The kind person who found Dutchess brought her to the Humane Animal Rescue’s North Side Animal Resource Center. When the staff got the dog cleaned up and fed, she was also given a thorough exam. That is where the microchip was found identifying her last owners as living in Boca Raton, Florida. A call was made right away.
“I can’t believe you’re calling me right now. I can’t believe this is happening,” owner Katheryn Strang recalled saying to a local news station.
The moment she found out that Dutchess was alive and well, Katheryn planned to make the 18-hour drive up to Pittsburgh for the special reunion. That 1,130-mile trip was the same trip that Dutchess made at some point. No one knows when she made that journey or why she survived. All that is known is that she is back where she belongs.
“I missed you,” said Strang to Dutchess when they were reunited for the first time in 12 years. “Baby, where have you been?”
If you have been considering whether or not to microchip your dog, then it is clear from a story like this that it should become a priority. No one forgets their dog!
https://abcnews.go.com/US/dog-missing-george-bush-administration-reunites-owner-1100/story?id=66242263
