A sweet little lost pooch has come home in time for Christmas—to a bigger family than the one he left.
That’s because little Choco was gone for 5 years. But his hominid mama Patricia never gave up hope of finding him again.
It was 2022 when Choco disappeared from his Antelope, California home, and though the family sought help from neighbors and searched as far afield as felt reasonable, they couldn’t find him.
Then in November, Choco was identified by his microchip after being found chained to a fence in Detroit, more than 2,000 miles away. No one knows how he got there, but Helping Paws and Claws, a volunteer animal rescue charity, took responsibility for getting Choco home after he was taken in by the Lincoln Park Animal Shelter.
There must have been a fair few eyebrows raised at the shelter when the microchip turned up a dog registered to California, but Paws and Claws didn’t hesitate to reach out and even arrange air transit to get Choco back to his owners.
“Shocked,” Patricia described herself as being when she listened to the message on her answering machine. “I called the number, ‘You’re talking about Lincoln, California, right? No, Lincoln, Michigan.'”
Then, if the story needed anymore sweetness, a stranger named Pamela donated her SkyMiles to Penny, a volunteer with Paws and Claws, in order to fly Choco home to California.
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It had been 5 years since Choco was amongst his people, and over the years his family had grown. It hadn’t outgrown him, however, and his place on the couch was restored amid tears and laughter.
“Microchip your dogs,” Patricia said. “With the holidays and the extreme cold, a story like mine can be your story next.”
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