After four years and a cross-country trip, a woman and her dog have been reunited thanks to a microchip, the local humane society, and a few friends.
In April 2011, Erin Teal Littlestar says she let Oliver, a black mini poodle, out in her Shaw backyard. “A few minutes later, I realized he wasn’t back there anymore,” she says via email. “I had taken his collar off because he was scratching at it, so I panicked. He must have slipped through the gate and started to wander. He isn’t a runner, but he’s so friendly he will follow anyone.”
She put up missing dog posters and alerted local shelters and rescue organizations, but after weeks of searching, she heard nothing. In most cases, when people without proof of ownership bring a dog to a vet, the pet is scanned for a microchip. Since Oliver is microchipped, Littlestar assumes that someone intentionally didn’t have him scanned.
Fast forward to June 2015. Littlestar now lives in Oregon, where she settled last year after living in D.C. and New York. A few days ago, she got a call from the Washington Humane Society saying Oliver, who is now about 8, was found in Park View as a stray. “[I] started hysterically crying,” she says, “and then sprang into action calling everyone I still know in D.C. to see who could pick him up.”
Friends of Littlestar volunteered to drive Oliver from D.C. to New York to meet another friend who traveled with him from the city to Portland via plane. Oliver arrived midnight Wednesday “tired and a little shaken, but still the same sweet boy I lost those years ago,” Littlestar says.
“As I type this he is curled up next to me on the couch, tuckered out from playing with his little brother Pendleton,” she says. “I’m so happy to have him home. I never gave up hope that he was still out there, but this is truly a miracle. I couldn’t be more grateful.”
The reunion video!! #oliverishome
Posted by Erin Teal LittleStar on Thursday, June 11, 2015
Photo courtesy Erin Littlestar