Dog From Virginia Found in California, Eight Years After Going Missing

If this doesn’t touch your heart, you have a heart of gnarled, twisted oak.

Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times reported on the discovery of Petunia, an 11-year-old dog who went missing from her home in Virginia when she was three.

Yep, that’s eight years (56 in dog years!) Petunia spent apart from her family, but just as amazing is the distance she managed to travel in that period. See, Petunia was found in California, over 3,000 miles away in an animal shelter. You may commence baaaaawing … now.

Authorities said that Petunia went missing around Thanksgiving in 2003, and was never found despite an expansive search. Yet the American Staffordshire terrier (a breed that can live until 16 or 17) recently showed up at an animal shelter in Sacramento, California, where she was registered as a stray.

And just to make sure it is her, a scan of a microchip found in Petunia linked her to Virginia-based veterinarian clinic in Virginia. The clinic was contacted by the California animal shelter, and in turn got in touch with Petunia’s owners. Who, I imagine, had a bloody good baaaaaw themselves.

The aim now is to get the intrepid mutt home for Christmas. It’ll be a long and perhaps lonely trip for Petunia, but the California animal shelter is on the case. Man, who wants to be at that reunion?

See also:More happy endings!