A dog that had been missing for more than a decade was reunited with its owner earlier this month about 60 miles from where she originally disappeared.
The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office posted the reunion and the story on its Facebook page last Friday.
The Sheriff’s Office said an animal services officer was called for a report of a stray dog on a rural property outside of Stockton. The dog was said to be old and in poor health.
The officer scanned the dog for a microchip and was shocked to see that the dog had gone missing in 2010 nearly 12 years earlier. The dog, named Zoey, was reported missing out of Lafayette, a town outside of Berkeley, about 60 miles from where she was found.
It had been so long since she was first reported missing that the microchip company had actually marked Zoey as deceased, the Sheriff’s Office said. Luckily, her owners were still on file and, even more fortuitous, had the same phone number.
The Sheriff’s Office called Zoey’s owner, who now lives in Solano County, and were able to meet up for the reunion.
“I’m still in shock. I definitely did not expect this to ever happen,” Zoey’s owner said.
Animal welfare officials and experts encourage pet owners to get their animals microchipped for instances just like this.
