Missing Calif. dog reunited with family in Detroit
A dog that vanished in San Diego over the summer was reunited with her owner after she was found more than 2,300 miles away in a Detroit suburb.
“This is a tale that Hollywood would love to tell,” the Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society wrote in a post about the reunion.
In a video, the group said it quickly discovered that a stray dog picked up by police in Harper Woods, Michigan, has been missing from her “forever home” since July.
The dog, a terrier mix named Mishka, was Elizabeth Houman’s beloved family pet.
“My daughter and I were traveling for a month out of town, and Mishka went everywhere with me. She’s definitely a mama’s girl,” Houman told USA TODAY. “So my husband would bring her to his mechanic shop for company, and she got out and he thinks that she was looking for me.”
Houman said Mishka, who is microchipped and wore a collar with the couple’s phone number, had gotten out before but had returned within minutes.
For two weeks, the couple − hopeful Mishka would be found − didn’t tell their then-4-year-old daughter that she was missing. Houman said they instead told her the dog was at the vet getting checked out, but eventually they had to come clean.
Houman believes Mishka was most likely taken.
“It was the most horrifying thing to go through that someone intentionally took your dog and kept it for themselves.
“I was so worried about her well-being − if she was being treated kindly and not neglected,” Houman said.
She then got to work searching for the pup. Houman said her sister flew out from Minneapolis to help her post more than 1,000 flyers of Mishka.
“We will do anything to get our baby back,” Elizabeth Houman said in a Facebook post in July.
Houman had a flyer placed on the back of her car, she posted on social media sites, and she even paid for a premium plan with the pet recovery service Home Again.
“I always carried her leash with me in the front seat of the car. And then I wore her leash in case I saw her on the street,” she said.
Owner drives 12 hours to get Mishka back
Houman said the family was getting ready to fly to Minneapolis to celebrate Easter when they received a call that Mishka was found.
“I just started sobbing for like 10 minutes on the phone and can’t thank the team at the shelter (enough). They’ve been so amazing,” she said.
After landing in Minneapolis late Thursday night, Houman said they had planned on figuring out a plan to get Mishka the next morning, but her husband couldn’t wait.
“He took off in the middle of the night and drove. It was actually a 12hour drive to outside of Detroit,” Houman said.
“He drove all night on no sleep, just adrenaline and energy drinks.”
Mishka immediately recognized him and began jumping up and down in her cage, Houman said.
He drove Mishka back to Minneapolis to be reunited with the rest of the family before they all got on a flight home.