The day when thirteen-year-old Captain went missing was incredibly difficult for his owner, Lisa Wood, and her family.
Wood was at home, preparing dinner and expecting Captain and her two other dogs Manny and Ruben to return home.
The trio was exploring the family property in West Plains, Missouri. It was their daily routine, which they enjoyed a lot.
However, that day Manny and Ruben came back home at the usual time, but Captain wasn’t with them.
The shocking realization that her beloved dog was missing left Wood terribly worried.
Captain was the apple of her eye, and she was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to find his way back home because he had arthritis.
Searching For Captain
A Good Samaritan who was traveling through Missouri spotted a confused senior dog roaming the area.
Convinced that the dog was lost, the woman drove him to a shelter in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The shelter staff took the dog in and scanned him for a microchip.
They were baffled when they found out that the dog had an owner who lived 200 miles away.
Meanwhile, Wood was tirelessly looking for Captain, determined to find him as soon as possible.
She posted about him on Facebook, hoping that someone would lead her back to him.
Captain’s whole family, including his tiny humans, anxiously waited for his return.
A day after the doggo vanished, Wood received a call from the shelter staff who told her that Captain was in the Bentonville shelter. She was both relieved and surprised.
She couldn’t wait to reunite with her dog and to have him in her arms again, but the shelter was five hours away.
Since the shelter didn’t have the resources to transport Captain to his home, they reached out to Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare organization, which rushed to help the dog.
They knew that he must be anxious and sad now that he was in a new environment, away from his beloved family.
An Emotional Encounter
On the same day, Dani Rakestraw, Animal Behavior and Training Specialist at Best Friends Animal Society, agreed to transport Captain.
She loaded him in her van and drove him to Branson, Missouri, a halfway point between Bentonville and West Plains, where Wood was waiting for him.
Captain couldn’t have known that he would soon be reunited with his favorite human who he missed all along.
Once he saw his mom, Captain smiled and started wagging his tail with excitement. He showered his mom with kisses and sighed in relief as she hugged him.
Captain was over the moon to return to his loving humans, who were equally happy to have him back home.
This incredible story perfectly highlights the importance of microchipping our pets.
If Captain hadn’t been microchipped, he would have stayed at the shelter and wouldn’t have been able to reunite with his loving family.