A dog that went missing seven years ago in northwest Arkansas soon will be reunited with her original owner after living under a different name for all that time with another family in the same town.
Andrew Navarette told animal control officers that he let his Shih Tzu, Mimi, out in the backyard of his Rogers Arkansas home seven years ago but that when he went to retrieve her she had disappeared. Navarette was unable to track Mimi down, even though she had a microchip implanted in her neck containing his contact information.
It is not clear what happened to Mimi that day, but some time later, Kim Rafter also of Rogers Arkansas acquired the animal from someone in good faith, renamed her Gizmo, and has cared for her ever since.
Meanwhile, Navarette relocated to Woodlake, California.
On Saturday, Mimi showed up at an animal shelter in Rogers where officials found the chip and called Navarette, who had kept the same cell phone number through the years.
It’s not known how Rafter lost the pooch.
“As far as I know, it was just running loose,” the shelter’s manager, Bud Norman. “It was picked up and brought into the shelter.”
Assistant shelter manager Matt Colston said Navarette was clearly excited that Mimi had been found and immediately said he would pay for the Shih Tzu to be shipped to his home in California.
Norman said Rafter called the shelter Wednesday after losing the dog, and that was how she found out that Mimi has another owner.
Rafter said it will be difficult to say goodbye to the animal her family has known as Gizmo for the past seven years and that she had no idea that the dog’s real owner had been looking for her.
“I’m a sympathetic person and I wouldn’t want to take anybody’s dog away, but I’m sure that, as little as she was when we got her, I’m sure we’re the only ones she’s bonded with.”
Norman called the dog’s saga “bittersweet” because while one family is thrilled, another is sad.
“It just amazes me when this happens,” he said. “I’m hoping people understand the power of a microchip, if they love their animals.”
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