Cindy Meyer and her family know the desperation people feel when a pet wanders off and doesn’t return.
Two months ago, the Meyer’s dog “Tucker” went missing. After what seemed like endless searching, the family was recently reunited with their beloved Shetland sheepdog.
They say without his identification tags he may not have been returned home 66 days after he went missing.
“It is such a relief to have him home,” Meyer said of her four-legged companion. “We are not letting him go again.”
On Aug. 12, Meyer “re-homed” the 2-year-old Tucker to a woman who lived in Fargo, N.D.
“For various reasons, we just couldn’t keep him anymore,” Meyer said of her decision to find Tucker a new home.
Meyer said Tucker’s new owner instantly fell in love with him, however, after spending just one day in his new home, Tucker got loose and started what Meyer calls his “journey of a lifetime.”
As noted by the American Kennel Club’s website, shelties love their families, but may be reserved at first with strangers. Meyer believes Tucker was determined to be reunited with his family who were now more than 200 miles away.
“I really learned a lot about the breed while we were out looking for him,” Meyer said. “There is something about a sheltie that makes them a different sort of dog — they’re a one owner driven dog. Now that Tucker is home, he is staying home. He was looking for us and he found us.”
Robin Ramquist, public relations manager at the Borderland Humane Society, stressed the importance of putting proper identification on dogs and cats so that similar outcomes to Tucker’s story can be made possible.
“Research shows that 80 percent of pew owners believe that dogs and cats should wear ID tags,” Ramquist said. “But only 3 percent of pet owners say their pets wear the tags.”
Ramquist continued that when a family pet goes missing, most of the time the animal is returned the same day if it can be identified. However, all too often she sees cases of a lost pet lacking identification.
“I find that there are a lot of people who have indoor pets without identification,” she said. “An indoor pet can still get loose and can still get lost. They need ID tags, too.”
Because Meyer is a volunteer at the BHS, she is familiar with the importance of putting identification on a pet and is thankful she chose to put a tag on Tucker.
“The person who actually found Tucker at a construction site about five miles from where he went missing heard his tags making noise,” Meyer said. “Not only did his identification tags help determine who he was, but the noise helped him be found.”
During the search for Tucker, several organizations were contacted and flyers were made to help locate the missing dog, Meyer said. Ramquist noted the value of such actions.
“The more people alerted of a lost pet, the better chance that animal will be found,” she said. “People need to remember to contact law enforcement, veterinarians, the radio station, a local newspaper or humane society if there is one in town if a pet has gone missing.”
Meyer added, “It is highly important to get any kind of identification on a dog even if you have to write on the collar with a marker. I hate to see animals that don’t have a home and should be in their home.”
Julie Mannausau of Mannco Trucking shares the views of Ramquist and Meyer about putting identification on an animal, especially after a dog showed up at the business Oct. 17.
“Everybody knows we have a dog here,” Mannausau said. “We wish he had some kind of ID.”
For Meyer, she is thankful to have Tucker home and for all of the people who helped her search for him.
“We had so many calls come in of possible Tucker sightings. Actually, we helped four or five other dogs find their way home,” she said. “We learned our lesson and Tucker is a very special dog. He is back to normal and so is our family.”
