Missing dog returned after 1,400-mile trip
Published: October 16, 2006
It took a 1,400-mile trip, the kindness of strangers and a microchip to bring home a member of the Ontiveros family.
Kobe, a small white terrier, went missing from the family’s Bellflower yard last month. He was reunited with them Thursday evening at the Southeast Area Animal Control Authority in Downey, surrounded by television cameras and smiling SEAACA staffers.
Kobe was found by a good Samaritan in Denton, Texas, who took him to the Little Elm Animal Control Shelter, SEAACA spokesman Aaron Reyes said.
SEAACA officials believe Kobe might have been picked up by a driver, who mistook him for a lost dog, and made his way east until he was brought to Denton’s animal shelter. The microchip implanted in the dog when he was adopted from SEAACA became his ticket home, Reyes said.
Thanks to the chip, animal control officials in Denton were able to retrieve owner information and locate Kobe’s family. AVID, the Norco-based company that produces the microchip, then flew Kobe from Texas to Ontario Airport.
“We’re happy,” said Jayson Ontiveros, who was at the reunion in Downey with his wife, Michelle, as the couple’s daughters, Stephanie and Sarah, 11, cuddled and petted Kobe before taking im for a quick walk around SEAACA’s parking lot.
“… We’re glad that there were plenty of good, helpful people out there,” Jayson added.
He’s not the only animal from SEAACA implanted with a chip. AVID Vice President Peter Troesch said his company’s chips are implanted in about 2 million cats and dogs. Through the chips, 1,200 pets are reunited every day with their owners, he said. Kobe’s story is just one of many, Troesch added.
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