Dec
Lost Dog Returned Just in Time for Christmas
A missing dog has been reunited with its owners after disappearing for more than two years, proving that in this case, a dog isn’t just for life, it’s also for Christmas
The Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross was handed to Hounslow Council’s animal warden team who discovered that the pet had been micro-chipped by the legal owners.
Further investigation revealed that the dog – with the seasonally appropriate name Sprout – was stolen from outside a shop in Ealing in July 2005.
Sprout has had a colourful life for a young dog, spending some of his early life in the famous Battersea Dogs’ Home. The dogs’ home helped to publicise his disappearance on national television in 2006, a move that led to a £1,000 reward being put forward by ITV’s Paul O Grady show and former Eastenders’ star Wendy Richards.
It is believed that Sprout has been living with another family in Hounslow for more than two years. The four-year-old terrier then went missing for a second time and found his way back home to his rightful owners after two teenage boys found him and handed him to Hounslow Council.
Sprout’s owner, Charlotte Wise and Perry Gibb, who lived in Ealing at the time Sprout was stolen, have since moved to Hither Green in South East London. They now have two new arrivals, a baby daughter and another Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
Sprout’s mum, Charlotte, said:
“We’re so surprised. We were devastated when he was stolen and we didn’t think we’d ever get him back. Sprout is as fit as a fiddle. He’s loving being home and fitting in with the new arrivals.”
Sprout’s dad, Perry, added:
“We got a call to say that he’d been found in Hounslow with no collar and luckily the two boys that found him took him to the pound. It’s just lovely to have him home where he belongs.”
The unlikely tale is a timely reminder of the benefits of having your pet micro-chipped, a simple procedure that is provided by most vets.
According to Sprout’s owners, it also adds weight to a campaign by the website www.doglost.co.uk to make it compulsory for all organisations that come into contact with dogs to check them for micro-chips.
Charlotte said:
“Sprout is the perfect example of how a lot of heartache could have been avoided. The people who had Sprout had apparently registered him with a vet. If the vet had scanned him we would have had him home almost immediately, not two and a half years later.”
Hounslow Council’s animal warden team is also using Sprout’s Christmas tale to emphasise that anyone who finds a stray dog should contact the council’s animal wardens who will do their best to return it safely to its owners.
In the meantime, there will be at least one family in London who will be delighted to have a lot of Sprout this Christmas
Well done the Animal Wardens! Nice to see Local Authority staff getting the kudos for a change, instead of others.
Nice result, it is great to see a positive outcome because the people responsible for dealing with stray dogs know what they are doing. A few years ago round where I live two dogs were found by the local Dog Warden Service, both had microchips, one had been stolen in a burglary three years previously. When the owners were contacted though, they did not want it back, this does not make a positive story promoting responsible dog ownership when the owners do not want their dog back! The other one had been stolen and bought in a pub ‘off a bloke for £50′, unfortunately the owners when contacted had given the dog to another person who had moved out of the area. The microchip details had not been amended so there was no way of tracing the owner. Well done Hounslow Animal Warden Team keep up the good work. Not sure why http://www.doglost.co.uk is telling councils that they need to scan dogs they seize, perhaps they think that dog wardens do not bother checking dogs for forms of identification? They should instead lobby for all people who find dogs to contact the local council where the dog is found to enable it to be checked for ID by people who work with dogs and have a statuttory duty to deal with them….Dog Wardens.
What a happy ending for this family!
l also think it should be promoted and compulsary for all vets to check for a micro-chip on all newly registered pets!!
l lost a cat who was chipped and it took a whole 12 months for me to get him back. Someone had found him and decided to keep him themselves, they registered him at thier vets without any checks for a chip. Lucky for me he was lost again and someone else took him to a vet’s to be taken to a rescue centre, the vet scanned him and l was contacted and able to go pick him up. l found the people who had been keeping him after l saw a ‘lost’ poster of my cat and they admitted it never crossed thier minds to get him checked for a chip when they originally took him in and thier vet never suggested it or asked any details about where they got him etc etc….
lf all vets scanned new patients many lost/stolen pets could be quickly re-united with thier families. l also agree that ALL pets should be permanently identified either by micro-chip or tattoo as tags and collars (my cat had both on when he disappeared) can so easily be lost or removed.
Sharon, people who ‘find’ dogs and cats and decide to keep them are more commonly called thieves. If you find a car with the keys in it parked on your drive you would think there was something funny going on not just keep the car! With dogs I think that ‘Pedigree Breed Syndrome’ affects some finders, they see a nice looking dog and must think ‘aw it has been dumped, lets keep it!’ They then never call the council or police and years later the dog and owner may be reunited if it has escaped or as in this case it is found through its microchip. As the same has happened with your cat, then there must also be a syndrome called ‘Feline Breed Syndrome Disorder’. My mums cat disappeared and returned a couple of months later wearing a collar and tag of its new owner…nice one, not!
WOW! Good thing you kept your wits enough to fight off the bugger. Glad you’re ok. The worse thing to happen to me on that street was when I encountered a pack of dogs late one night. I kept a safe distance behind them until I got home. Take care.