Missing service dog reunites with family after 3 years
Debra Mejeur had long given up hope that her black Labrador service dog, Lola, would ever be found.
The Michigan woman’s dog went missing a little more than three years ago on Oct. 21, 2017, when Mejeur and her husband, Steve, were visiting a friend in Elk Grove Village. Lola was in the fenced-in yard of the friend’s home and somehowgot loose.
The couple searched for about a month, making regular trips from their home in Michigan to Elk Grove Village to look for Lola. They put up flyers, searched with a team of volunteers and even hired a professional pet rescuer to aid in the search.
But Lola could not be found — until earlier this week.
On Saturday, Lola and her familywere reunited at the DuPage County Animal Services facility — three years after Lola’s disappearance.
Lola’s microchip helped locate her family, but how she survived for three years is unknown.
“I just can’t believe it,” Mejeur said.
At first, Lola was a bit tentative. But once she got a whiff of her old blanket and Mejeur took off her face mask, Lola’s tail started wagging, expressing the joy of the reunion.
“This is a good way to end 2020,” Mejeur said as she played with her dog on the lawn in front of the DuPage County Animal Services building.
“It gives us hope for 2021,” added Barbara Hanek, veterinarian administrator for DuPage County Animal Services.
Hanek’s office got a call earlier this week from a Glendale Heights couple who had found the dog. The couple had seen Lola throughout the last few years going into a forest preserve and had been leaving food out for Lola, to gain her trust. This week,
theywere able to bringLola to animal services.
“This is a happy ending,” Mejeur said, her eyes expressing the smile beneath her face mask.
Mejeur first got a text Thursday, saying it was about Lola, butMejeur just ignored it, figuring it was from one of the pet clubs she signed up for years ago.
Then came a phone call. The message said Lola had been found and that Mejeur should check her text message for more details.
She read in shock that Lola had been located in DuPage County. The information on Lola’s microchip led to the Mejeurs. When she called DuPage County Animal Services, she simply asked if they had a dog named Lola.
“They responded with, ‘Are you Debra?’” she recalled. “I just lost it. I just started crying because it proved to me that it was her.”
When the Mejeurs return to Michigan on Saturday, Lola will have some time to get acquainted to her new home. The last time the three were together, theMejeurs lived in an apartment building. They’ve since bought a home with a fenced-in yard. Lola also will meet a
few other new additions to the family — another black Labrador named Maddox and two new cats named Prit and Dublin. She’ll also be reunited with two cats, Fifty and Archer, who lived with her before she went missing.
Lola, whowas trained to help Mejeur whenever she would have a seizure, will go into retirement, Mejeur said.
“She deserves it,” Mejeur said after Saturday’s reunion.
No one is quite surewhy Lola got loose in the first place. Mejeur wonders if it was separation anxiety or just being in an unfamiliar place on that day that prompted Lola to escape. It’s also unclearwhere Lola stayed the last three years, how she survived or even how she got from that backyard in Elk Grove Village to GlendaleHeights.
“If she could talk ...” Mejeur said with a laugh.
Hanek said Lola’s reunion highlights the need for pet owners to microchip their pets and to keep their information current. She also encouraged residents to call animal services when they see a stray pet.
But more importantly, Lola is a reminder to have hope, Hanek said.