Dog gone since 2007 found nearly 2000km away
A toy fox terrier in the United States that disappeared from its family’s south Florida home in 2007 was found this week almost 2000km away in Pittsburgh and reunited with its owner at the weekend.
The 14-year-old dog named Dutchess was found hungry, shivering and in serious need of a nail trim under a shed this week, according to Humane Animal Rescue.
The property owner took the dog to a Humane Animal Rescue location, where staffers located a microchip and traced the dog to its owners in Boca Raton, Florida.
They are like your babies. You don’t give up hope.
The dog’s owner, Katheryn Strang, drove all the way to Pittsburgh for an emotional reunion with Dutchess. Boca Raton, Florida, is about 1818km from Pittsburgh.
Strang said she couldn’t believe it when she got the call that her dog had been found after all those years.
She said her son had opened the door after school one day, Dutchess got out and they never saw her again. They were living in Orlando at the time near a busy street and she assumed the dog was hit by a car or taken by someone.
She checked shelters daily in the weeks after Dutchess went missing, and continued to pay the annual fee on the microchip, and update her contact details when she moved.
“They are like your babies. You don’t give up hope,” she said after the reunion. As she kissed and hugged her long-lost pet, she murmured to the dog: “Where have you been?”
Thrilled dog owner Katheryn Strang