Reunited in California

“My husband, Kurt and I adopted Samson and Cleo from an animal shelter in San Antonio, Texas. They were the last two left from their litter. We went to adopt one dog, but when we saw them together we fell in love and took them both home. They truly were our babies.

Then, we decided to move to California. Originally, our plan was to take them with us to California. However, we were going to have to rent a home, and it was difficult to find a rental in the short time that we had that could accommodate our full family, and that met the needs of Samson and Cleo. It was suggested that perhaps we should consider leaving Samson and Cleo behind and find a place where they could continue to run around and explore. We found a young man who lived outside Austin, who said he had desperately wanted to adopt some loving dogs and would keep them together. It was excruciating to say good-bye, but we thought we were doing the right thing.

We received a couple of communications thereafter, with pictures of Samson and Cleo riding in a pick-up truck and wearing bandanas. We’ve always regretted giving them up and would be so sad when Ava and Lars would lovingly talk about the dogs we used to have.

Fast-forward 4 years later, I received a call from my mother, Dianna, in Texas. She said she received a call from the microchip company with which we had registered the dogs so many years ago. Thankfully, when we registered them, we must have listed my mother as a back-up as our cell phone numbers have changed since we moved to California. My mother told me that there had been a report that Sampson had been located.

The microchip company, AKC Reunite, gave me a phone number of a woman who had the dogs. Her name is Elaine S. Elaine explained that she lived in Leander, Texas, which was shockingly about 70 miles from where we knew the dogs to last be. Elaine said she had Samson, and that there was another dog with him that looked a little like a golden retriever. I asked her to please take a picture and text it to me, and anxiously waited to see if it was Cleo and how they looked. The picture came through, and indeed, it was Samson and Cleo! While they had gained some grey hair in their senior years, they looked pretty much the same!

Elaine explained the dogs had come to the door of her church the night before and then reappeared the next morning, and so she took them to get scanned for a locator microchip.

Meanwhile, I finally got ahold of my husband, Kurt. He asked – what do you want to do? I said I want them to come home! He readily agreed they needed to be back with us. Thus, we looked into options and decided the fastest and least traumatizing would be for him to go and get them. Thankfully, Elaine and her son, Tim, agreed to keep the dogs while Kurt made the journey. Within an hour, Kurt jumped into the car, and drove to Leander, Texas, to retrieve Samson and Cleo and bring them home! It was over 20 hours, each way, and within 2.5 days, Kurt brought the dogs back.

The kids and I stood in the street, watching the blood moon eclipse, and waited for their arrival. Everyone was overjoyed when they came home!

We took them to the vet the very next day. Cleo and Samson were both about 10-20 pounds underweight, respectively, needed a nail trim and a flea bath, vaccinations, treatment for ear infections and tape worms, etc. We then took them this past Monday to get their teeth cleaned, and thankfully only one extraction was necessary for Cleo. Kurt has been building a fence for our lot and making protections against the coyotes. Ava and Lars have been walking them several times a day, and are thrilled to have them home. We are now making them beach goers! Our move to California now seems truly complete. The morale to the story is to go microchip your pets if you haven’t already!-Dawn K., Costa Mesa, CA

Enroll Your Pet Today