His family’s grief was compounded by the fact that Richey’s trusted companion, Sugar, a 9-year-old blond Cocker Spaniel, was nowhere to be found.

Immediately, Richey’s sister, Kerri Simms began an effort to find the missing dog. And so she did what many others in search of a lost pet did: she made posters and created a Facebook page dedicated to locating the dog. But as the weeks rolled by, the chances of finding Sugar grew slim.

That all changed Friday night when Chris Ruport, a part-time taxi driver spotted a stray dog walking in the street and decided to pick it up.

“My husband doesn’t usually pick up stray animals, so there must have been something about her that said ‘help me,’” Ruport’s wife Courtney said.

That night, Ruport posted a photo of Sugar on Craigslist. Within hours, word reached Simms that a dog matching Sugar’s description had been found. The next day, Simms made the journey to claim her.

Simms then took Sugar to the Emergency Pet Center in Joplin, Missouri where she was treated for severe eye and ear infections, flea infestation, and severe dehydration. Richey’s mother, Joyce said Sugar was weak when the family picked her up but after “intravenous fluids and a good nights rest, she was better”.

Simms has since taken Sugar home, where she lives with six other dogs and five cats. She said Sugar has spent a lot of time sleeping and eating.

Finding Sugar has given her a new connection with her brother,

Simms said. “It means having part of my brother back,” she said.

Simms also said those who are still searching for lost pets should continue to do so.

“I know there are a lot of pets still out there and there may be people keeping them not realizing that the owners are looking for them,” she said.

“All I can say to them is start with the fliers and keep looking.”

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

It was literally a “happy” ending for a Stoughton, Massachusetts family whose dog Happy went missing after being left at the Stoughton Groomer’s when the family was away on vacation.

According to the owner’s daughter, Karen Naughton, her parent’s adorable black and white Havanese was released by an intoxicated woman who broke into the Stoughton Groomers on Wednesday evening.

Police say 44-year-old Pamela Dowd was drunk when she busted through the kennel door at Stoughton Groomers, sending nine dogs running into the busy street.

One pet, unfortunately, was killed.

Happy’s owners, Jim and Vivian Bannister, were away on vacation and daughter Karen said her mom had a sleepless night worrying about the whereabouts of her beloved pet.

A number of sightings were reported Thursday and early Friday, but happily three teenaged neighbors were able to rescue Happy.

Karen said that “they sent over a photo and I was able to confirm it was Happy. My mom came back right away and got him. [The teens] thought it was a female having puppies because he was so tired. The three of them (mom, dad, and Happy) are exhausted.”

Unfortunately at the time of the incident, apparently no one was there watching the dogs being boarded.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

Thursday morning, lost and disoriented, Stan Jessop was walking aimlessly with his sister’s two dogs.

“Unfortunately I was out working in my garden and I didn’t hear Stanley leave,” said Patty Hannaman, Jessop’s sister.

Driver after driver passed him, until Kristen Taylor came along.

“I can’t drive past somebody like that so I stopped and asked him if he needed help,” said Taylor.

She took him to the nearest fire station where firefighters tried to find out how to get a 68-year-old man with dementia back home.

“We had a hard time figuring out where he came from so the only identification that was anywhere near there was the dog tags,” said Tim Percival with Mountain View Fire and Rescue.

The microchip collars around Kizzi and Amigo were supposed to keep them safe, but it ended up being the key to getting Stan back to where he belonged.

“I’ve never heard of a microchip helping somebody get home,” said Percival.

The microchips contained the address and phone number of Stan’s sister, who had no idea he was even gone.

“It’s such a small little thing and it can be a lifesaver, not only for the pet, but apparently for humans also,” said Hannaman.

“I think fabulous that a little microchip on a dog got me out of trouble,” Jessop said.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

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.”

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

When Dane Cook realized his dog was missing on Saturday, he went to the best resource available to find him: Twitter.

“West Hollywood I need your help please. My dog Beast is missing in that area,” the comedian wrote on his Twitter page, with a photo attached and email address for users to contact him if the dog was found.

Cook also called for volunteers to help him find the missing pup, and was understandably upset that Beast was nowhere to be found.

However, showing the true power of Twitter, the dog was found shortly after Cook’s pleas hit the web.

“We found Beast!!!! Thank you so so so much everyone for your help!!!! I am so happy right now!!!!!” Cook tweeted Saturday night, adding, “Beast is alive and well – thanks everyone that helped us find him.”

So at the end of the day, the roaming pup was back at home with Cook, who was overjoyed that this Twitter tale ends on a good note.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

Facebook has been blamed for many hours of wasted time and stalking. But what about finding a lost dog?

The story started when Lucy, a Golden Retriever, went missing in Minnesota. A truck driver found the dog on the side of the road and picked her up. Nobody knew who she belonged to, and so the truck driver took her along as a travel companion, ending up in Indiana.

Meanwhile, Amber Yaw, Lucy‘s owner, posted a lost ad on Facebook. At the same time, the truck driver posted an ad on Craigslist. Eventually a connection was made and the owners traveled to Indiana and retrieved their lost dog.

As Patti Yaw, Amber’s mother says, “Had we not had the internet, had Amber not done what she did, had the person who found her not put it on Craigslist… all of these different things had to work together.”

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

When Buster disappeared from his home in Colorado, his owner spent hours agonizing over his fate.

But despite thinking about all the different possibilities, including that her beloved Labrador Retriever had been stolen or eaten by a lion, Samantha Squires could never have imagined what really happened to him.

Yet miraculously, six months after Buster Brown vanished from his home in Boulder, Colorado he was found – an astonishing 1,200 miles away in Salinas, California.

“I have no idea how he would have made it to Salinas,’ Squires said. ‘I’ve never even heard of it before.’

Squires had given up hope of ever seeing her best friend again, when she received a letter from an animal shelter.

Someone found the intrepid pooch wondering the streets of Salinas and took him to the shelter where the staff scanned him for a microchip.

The shelter called all the phone numbers listed for the dog, but unfortunately, they were all disconnected.

In a final bid to find his owner, the shelter wrote a letter to his last known address saying that they had until May 31 to contact the shelter or the dog would be placed up for adoption.

Late in the afternoon on May 31, a tearful Squires rang the shelter saying she was his owner.

Buster and Squires were reunited after he was flown back from San Francisco, California to Denver, Colorado.

No one knows how the adventurous dog made his way 1,200 miles across country.

Cindy Burnham, a representative of the animal shelter said they had, ‘no idea how he got here’. ‘He’s the only one who knows. We’re asking him but he’s not telling us.’

A delighted Squires said that Buster ‘looks quite a lot older and quite a lot fatter’.

But she is overjoyed to be reunited with her canine companion.

‘He was with me 24/7,’ she said. ‘He slept with me, ate with me, we ran together, everything.’

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

Thanks to the power of Twitter, a dog and his owner are now reunited.

Two days after finding and taking in the stray dog she found wandering around Darien, Connecticut, Kristin Calve decided to take to Twitter in hopes of finding the dog’s owner.

Calve had contacted animal control officials about a small, Yorkshire Terrier named Bori that had no tags and no microchip. But Bori’s owner hadn’t come forward as of Sunday night and Calve began to worry.

“I started to think `do I own this dog now,” she said. That’s when Calve posted a photo of the dog on her Twitter page, along with a plea for help.

The tweet, it turned out, paid off. Calve said the neighbor of Bori’s owner, who lives in Stamford, Connecticut saw the story, which had been posted online by the Darien Connecticut News and The Advocate, and called Calve’s cell phone number to claim the dog.

On Monday morning, Calve tweeted the good news. “Thanks to @StamAdvocate! Your story helped us find the dog’s owners! I just dropped him off.”

Story By Elaine Furst For Dog Files

“Eleven years in the Army, he’s got a lot of friends all over the world, but Drew is his best friend.”

So says the mother of Staff. Sgt. John Mathatas of Brunswick, Ohio whose beloved 8-year-old Miniature Dachshund Drew went missing after they let the dog outside of their home on March 12 and he never came back.

Mathatas’ parents were watching Drew while their son was in Kuwait.

Marta Mathatas said a couple from Parma, Ohio had found Drew, who had been by Mathatas’ side through several deployments and even divorce, while they were out driving and had been taking care of the dog ever since. When they saw an article about the missing pooch, they called Brunswick, Ohio police. The dog was returned to the Mathatas family early Friday evening.

Sgt. Mathatas returned from duty on March 19 and on Friday, he was finally reunited with his beloved Drew.

Story By Elaine Furst For Dog Files

The Dog Files wishes D.J. Rodrian a quick and happy reunion with his best friend, Titus.

– Kenn Bell

If this story doesn’t speak to the bond between a man and his best friend then nothing else will.

D.J. Rodrian from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is literally camped outside his former home, hoping his lost dog will return. Rodrian said his 8-year-old dog, Titus, escaped from a dog sitter’s house on April 1.

That same day, Titus was spotted outside his master’s former home.

Unfortunately, Rodrian and his family moved out of that home last July.

Rodrian has set up “Camp Titus” near his old home, spending his nights in a tent in the hopes that Titus will return.

“He has been seen here, overnight, prior to me setting up this tent,” Rodrian said. He believes Titus is now is survival mode, and would likely run away if approached.

Rodrian is posting updates to the internet during his search. You can follow his blog by clicking here.

Story By Elaine Furst For Dog Files