Muffy’s Mysterious Mileage
If you’ve ever lost a dog you know how devastating it is. This story proves no matter how much time has passed there’s always hope for a happy ending.
SYDNEY – Nine years after vanishing from outside her Australian family’s home, Muffy the dog was found alive and well this month in another backyard – 1,200 miles away – officials said Thursday.
Inspectors with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were investigating a possible animal cruelty case at a home in the southern city of Melbourne two weeks ago when they found the fluffy white mutt sleeping outside on a scrap of cardboard, Victoria state RSPCA spokesman Tim Pilgrim said.
A microchip in Muffy’s neck identified her owners, and, after a few days of searching for a current phone number, officials tracked down Natalie Lampard, who hadn’t seen Muffy since the pooch disappeared from her backyard in the eastern city of Brisbane nine years ago.
“When the RSPCA described her, I told them her name; I knew immediately it was our Muffy,” Lampard said. “It was totally out of the blue – after nine years, I thought she was long gone.”
The owners of the Melbourne house where Muffy was discovered said they found the dog about a year ago wandering along a street, Pilgrim said. But where had Muffy spent the previous eight years? And how did she get all the way to Melbourne – about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) from Brisbane?
“Nobody knows,” Pilgrim said. “The mystery continues for old Muffy.”
Muffy is being treated by the RSPCA for a severe allergic reaction to fleas, shortly she should be well enough to be flown back home. What a reunion that’s going to be.
* Photo courtesy AP Associated Press
This is definitely an argument for having a dog microchipped.
This story was featured today on the front page of Yahoo. I hope more people microchip there pets afte reading this.
There also needs to be a proper system to support microchipping and something desperately needs to be done to stop humans from stealing animals. A human who deliberately keeps a lost dog they find without making any attempt to locate the legal owner of the dog is guilty of stealing the dog. The Crimes Act 1900 Section 132 should be enforced. Veterinarians should be checking the microchips of new dogs they treat. Muffy should not have suffered for 9 very long years. Stealing an animal and taking this animal away from his or her family and home is a very severe form of animal cruelty. Muffy was lucky a human got ‘involved’ and phoned the RSPCA. Thankfully Muffy can spend the remainder of her life being loved and properly cared for, but Muffy’s eyes tell her terrible story.
Just because a dog is chipped and licensed does not guarantee a safe return. The gal that I rescued my dog from had her dog 12 year old dog get out of her yard. She being a rescuer knew what to do and where to go to look. She had signs, notices, contacts and others searching for her dog. She looked diligently for almost two solid months only to find her dog about a week ago. The dog was dead and it was clean and healthy looking except for the fact that it had just been killed. Someone took the dog in and then turned around and killed and dumped it. The person that took it knew that it belonged to someone and yet still would not return the dog. Such a sad situation.But I would rather have my dog licensed and microchipped and hope that my dog would fall into the hands of a good samaritan rather then some thief.
Congratulations, Muffy, for finding your way home (almost)!