Growing up with a pet to dote on is a fabulous experience for kiddos. They become fast friends and best buds for life.
But one little boy Bradley learned the hard way that some people are just plain nasty. His dream of playing fetch with his best buddy for the foreseeable future was sadly shattered one day.
Bradley’s beautiful 8-year-old fluffy Akita named Missy, who was close to his age, was swiped out of the family’s front yard. Bradley and his dad Delon Pearson, 29, were crushed.
They mourned the loss of their beloved pet. It was so hard to move on, not knowing what exactly happened to Missy.
Was she in pain? Was she alive? Was she with a new family now?
Unbeknownst to Bradley and Delon, poor Missy was abandoned by the very people who stole her. She was found a few months later tied up at a car wash in a completely different town.
Missy was saved by Skylor’s Animal Rescue North Wales where caring staffers and volunteers tended to her. She was placed with a foster family for a few months until the shelter could find her a furever home.
Because Missy wasn’t microchipped, no one knew that she had a loving home and a family desperate to know what happened to her. They would’ve loved for her to have been returned home to them.
One year after Missy had been swiped from her own front yard, Delon and Bradley decided that they were never going to find her again. Maybe, just maybe, a new dog would help them heal the hole in their hearts that the loss of Missy had left behind.
They knew they didn’t want to buy a puppy, but instead wanted to adopt an older dog in need of a home. While searching Skylor’s website looking for the beautiful soulful face of the dog perfect for them, Delon couldn’t believe what he saw!
There, staring back at him, was a dog that looked exactly like their Missy! He was in shock, utter and complete disbelief! Except she had been renamed Bubbles.
“It was unbelievable, all this time looking for her without any results and with a search done on Google after almost a year, we managed to find her. Almost a year had gone by since she was taken so I thought maybe we could just have a look around, it was nothing more than that really but then, after I clicked on the first result on Google I saw this picture and I was completely amazed. I refreshed the page about three times and zoomed into the picture and there she was. I kept on double-checking because I was so shocked that I had actually found her.”
Delon called the animal shelter and explained what had happened to his Missy. He walked through the process of confirming that Missy was indeed his, then received the fantastic news that he could pick Missy up the very next day.
On cloud nine, Delon couldn’t wait to share the amazing news with his son. He decided to keep it a secret and told Bradley they were going on a little road trip.
The pair headed to the animal shelter to retrieve their girl. They couldn’t wait to see her!
“It’s an experience I’ll never forget, telling Bradley. He was beyond devastated when she was taken. But I’ll never forget his reaction when I told him that she’d be coming back, he was so happy.”
Missy instantly knew her family when they greeted her at the shelter. Her tail wagged and she glued herself to Bradley’s side.
Dawn Taylor, who runs Skylor’s Animal Rescue North Wales, could tell in her phone conversations with Delon how distraught the family had been over the loss of their beautiful dog.
“She was also missed so much by his son Bradley who she used to sleep with at night. And at the reunion there were no tears, just happiness. This has been a great day for Missy, her family and of course us – we are so glad a stolen, much-loved dog has found her way back home.”
Delon can tell that something unfortunate did happen to Missy. He said she’s still quite jumpy and the family realizes it will be a slow process winning her trust all over again.
He also is taking extra measures at home to protect her at home.
“I won’t be able to let her off the lead for a while. I’ve put fences up around the drive and there’s safety gates inside to stop her from leaving the house. I know it sounds crazy, but I’m also going to get CCTV installed. Some people would say that she’s just a dog, but to me she’s family and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that she is not taken again.”
The family profusely thanked the shelter for caring for Missy and keeping her safe until, as fate would have it, they were reunited with their girl.
“I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone at Skylor’s and to Angie who looked after Missy for two months. We’re so happy to have her back and that’s down to the work done by them.”
What an incredible story of a long lost dog returning to her family and finding her furever home a second time.
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