PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. -- A dog missing for six years has been reunited with her family after a stranger found her roaming the streets in Cincinnati and used a microchip to trace her back to north Florida.
Pooh Bear, a 13-year-old black Pomeranian, had a microchip about the size of a grain of rice implanted under her skin when she was a pup.

The chip can be scanned to identify the pet and its owner.

Her owner, Bambi Lesne, of Panama City, said she was heartbroken when the dog was stolen in 1996.

"She went everywhere with us, she was like one of my children,'' Lesne said.

After three years, she and her daughter, Codi, now 19, gave up hope of seeing her again.

Then a dirty and matted Pooh Bear was spotted July 5 walking near a marina in Cincinnati some 620 miles north of her home.

A woman found the dog took her to a veterinarian, who scanned the microchip.

Cincinnati veterinarian Dr. Cheryl Devine said she expected the pet had been missing for months, but not six years.

"And I've been able to track dogs before, but not down to Florida,'' she said.

Lesne met the woman at Birmingham, Ala., to reclaim her pet July 17.

"When I got home that evening, she saw my daughter Codi and howled with joy,'' Lesne said. "It gave me chill bumps. I've never seen anything like it.''

The dog has a few more gray hairs on her muzzle and underwent an operation for a hernia, but is otherwise healthy and happy to be home, Lesne said.


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