Missing dog turns up nine months later - and 2,000 miles from home

4 April 2024, 19:48 | Updated: 4 April 2024, 21:56

A dog missing from California has been reunited with its owners after turning up almost nine months later - and more than 2,000 miles away from the family home.

Terrier mix Mishka went missing from San Diego in mid-July last year and her owners' social media pleas for information failed to deliver any leads.

Fast forward nearly nine months and just before Easter, authorities in suburban Detroit, Michigan, responded to a call about a stray dog.

Police in Harper Woods picked the pooch up and contacted animal welfare group The Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society.

They soon discovered three-year-old Mishka had been chipped with information about her owner, who lives in San Diego, on the US west coast.

Mehrad Houman and his family were planning to travel to Minnesota when they got the call about Mishka being found.

Once the flight landed, he drove 10 hours to Michigan for an emotional reunion.

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"This is a tale that Hollywood would love to tell," the adoption society said in a social media post.

Mishka had disappeared from Mr Houman's workplace and Corinne Martin, director of the animal welfare group, believes the dog was "stolen and then it was sold and ended up in Michigan".

After being checked over and given a rabies shot, Mishka was cleared to return to her California home.

"She was clean [and] well-fed. Whoever had her took good care of her," vet Nancy Pillsbury told The Associated Press.

"How she got here - that's a story only Mishka knows."

(c) Sky News 2024: Missing dog turns up nine months later - and 2,000 miles from home