Tuffy's Home After 3 Years
This story made me smile.:)
Chip links lost dog to owner after 3 years
Martinsville pooch is found parading down Meridian Street -- 32 miles from home
By Aaron Sharockman
[email protected]
August 9, 2003
Anna Cox's missing dog, Tuffy, turned up this week on the Near Southside -- 32 miles from where he disappeared three years ago.
But only Tuffy knows where he's been since he left his Martinsville home in 2000, and the 6-year-old Lhasa apso mix isn't talking.
"It's a miracle," said Sherry Baumann, who found Tuffy on Wednesday trotting along South Meridian Street just north of Raymond Street. "He looked happy. His tail was up; his head was up. He didn't know where he was going, but he was excited going there."
Baumann, who was on her way to work, eventually coaxed Tuffy into her older-model green Dodge Caravan with a dog biscuit. She then took him to Indianapolis Animal Care and Control, where workers took him in.
Lost animals that are taken to the shelter are scanned for a microchip the size of a grain of rice that acts as identification, said Margie Smith-Simmons, director of community outreach.
Tuffy's chip eventually linked him to Cox's home in Martinsville.
After a few phone calls, Cox and Tuffy were back together for the first time in three years -- the longest period of time between a disappearance and reunion that Indianapolis animal control officials have ever encountered. Cox couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
"When we heard they'd been apart three years, it floored us," Smith-Simmons said. "It made our days."
Tuffy disappeared from Cox's back yard, leaving his chain and dog collar behind. Animal workers said that judging from his condition, Tuffy has been cared for in the past three years and even received a recent clipping of his black-and-brown coat.
But he had no collar, and on Wednesday, he clearly had no home.
"He was very dirty and he really did stink," said Baumann, who has four dogs of her own. "But he didn't let it change his attitude. He really was sweet."
Kim Rose, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club's Companion Animal Recovery, said missing animals are reunited with their owners every 11 minutes because they are identified by microchip. Her group has paired 152,000 missing animals and their owners since the program started in 1995, including 7,783 in Indiana.
On Friday, for instance, a Denver man met up with his two Labrador retrievers, Mo and Ziggy, who had made an inadvertent 1,400-mile trek to Georgia with a motorist.
Local owners can have their pets tagged at Indianapolis Animal Care and Control, 2600 S. Harding St., from noon to 4 p.m. today as part of its "Chip Day."
The procedure costs $10, and animal experts say it's virtually painless.
For more information, call 1-317-327-1397.
