Fort Worth Animal Control Reunites Missing Dog with Owner After Nearly Four Years

Two Fort Worth Animal Care & Control officers connected a missing dog with her owner after more than four years apart. Here's how it happened.

The city put out a blog post about the heartwarming story on Thursday. According to the release, Officers Caroline Parker and Reid Koenig were on patrol through a neighborhood on the south side of the city when they encountered Sunnie.

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The cream-colored terrier was roaming alone, shaggy, hungry, and scared. The officers scanned her for a microchip and learned that it was registered to an owner who lived nearly 30 miles away in Irving.

Officers Parker and Koenig called the number associated with the microchip and Carly answered. She told them that Sunnie went missing nearly four years ago and she had no clue how Sunnie had made it all the way to Fort Worth.

In rush hour traffic, the two officers made the trip to the neighboring city to reunite the family. They met Carly at her workplace, and even colleagues recognized the dog. More importantly, Sunnie immediately recognized Carly as her owner.

Officer Parker said, "In a job that's normally thankless, we felt like we did good that day. We encourage people to keep their microchips updated. You never know when it could be the thing that brings your lost pet home."

Microchips are about the size of a grain of rice and are implanted beneath the pet's skin near its shoulder. They are difficult to remove and linked to a registration database, which makes it easy for Animal Care & Control or other animal services departments to reunite lost pets with their loved ones.