LONG LOST DOG RETURNS AFTER 9 YEARS
A PUPPY who left his owner heartbroken after it went missing from his home nine years ago has incredibly returned home.
In July 2010 Rob Smith received a telephone call which left him completely heartbroken.
He was enjoying a day out at Ffos Las Racecourse when his mother called him to say Buster, his black Labrador puppy, had gone missing from their garden.
He rushed home immediately, and what followed over the next fortnight was a search across the streets of Llanelli to try to track down his puppy.
He had the help of a small army of people who all responded to a social media appeal to help find him, but eventually had to accept he was gone.
That was until he received a phone call from the Vets4Pets in Trostre Retail Park, Llanelli, which left him completely stunned.
The 39-year-old, of Swansea Road in Llanelli, who works in a bookmakers, said: “I was in work doing a 12-hour shift and I received a call from the vets to tell me they had Buster.
“My legs were like jelly and I burst into tears.
“I just could not believe it. I asked if it was Buster and the vets said ‘that’s what we have on the papers’.
“As soon as I got to the vets and saw him he pounced on me and started licking me to death. I burst into tears.
“After all this time, I never thought I’d see him again.”
Recalling the day he lost Buster, Mr Smith said: “I remember the day vividly. I was having a day out at Ffos Las Racecourse and I had a phone call from my mother to say the dog had gone missing.
“I came straight back home and went round half of Llanelli looking.
“I must have been looking for two weeks then had to accept he had been stolen and he was gone.
“I have always thought about him, and all this time he has been right under my nose. The vets said he had been in Kidwelly.”
There was one very important thing that Mr Smith did before he lost Buster that eventually led the two to be reunited.
“His microchip was scanned and it led him back to me,” Mr Smith said.
“It’s all a mystery regarding where he has been, and there are questions I have that will never be answered, but I have got him back, and that’s the main thing.
“I’m just so glad I got him chipped and that I’ve got the same mobile number as all those years ago!”
Mr Smith said his pet had been well looked after, and thanked Vets4Pets for everything they had done.
In an unlikely twist of fate, Buster going missing is how Mr Smith met his fiancée, Samantha, who is mother to his two children Ella Louise and Nia Grace.
“Samantha responded to my appeal for help on Facebook when Buster went missing, messaging me asking if I needed help looking for him,” Mr Smith said.
“We’ve now got two beautiful daughters together and she’s my fiancée, and we would not have met if he had not gone missing.”