Maryland Woman Reunited With Missing Dog After More Than Three Years

An implanted microchip was the key to finding the dog's owner

Three years and seven months after Kiddo the dog ran away, the 8-year-old Akita mix was reunited with his owner a long way from home.

According to the Culpeper Star Exponent, Culpeper County Animal Control apprehended Kiddo off Clover Hill Road in the county's Lakota area after receiving a number of complaints. When officials examined the dog, they unexpectedly found an indentifying microchip. Using the information found on the chip, Animal Control identified the owner as Wendy Love, of Glen Burnie, Md., a 2.5 hour drive away.  

“I never in a thousand years would have believed he had a microchip in him,” Kim Seibert, operations manager of Culpeper Animal Control, told the Star Exponent. “As soon as we micro-chipped him and found out his name, he calmed down and turned out to be a sweetie.”

Love had not heard any information about her missing dog since he ran away from her home in February 2008. Love had gone on vacation and left Kiddo with a sitter. “I went on vacation, I came home and he was gone,” Love told the Star Exponent. At the time, Love was living in Gaithersburg, more than 100 miles away from Culpeper County.

Exactly what Kiddo got up to in the intervening months will likely always be a mystery. Seibert told the paper that Kiddo was "not skinny, he’s not mangy and he hasn’t been hit by a motor vehicle ."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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