Dogged Animal Control workers help long-lost beagle reconnect with family

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - Hannah, a 10-year-old beagle, is finally home after quite an adventure.  She got reacquainted with Scott Rogers at Polk Animal Control a few days ago.

“They opened the gate, and she put her nose right up to my nose,” Scott recalled. “She didn’t hesitate to come to me.”

Scott’s mom, Jeannie, adopted Hannah from the SPCA of Florida back in 2007. They lived together as best buddies until Jeannie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and had to move into assisted living. Hannah was placed in a new home.

One day, Hannah got out and was hit by a car. Her hip was dislocated but she still had the stamina to take off running.

That mean, for the first time in her life, she was on the streets fending for herself. It wasn’t easy, especially when Hurricane Irma barreled through our area last year. Somehow she survived.

Not long ago, a Good Samaritan caught Hannah and brought her to Polk County Animal Control, where workers checked her microchip. It said Jeannie, now dead, was her owner.

Instead of giving up, they scoured lost-and-found websites, made calls, and finally figured out that Hannah had a connection to their agency: Someone who works there is related to Scott.

In the end, Scott and Hannah were re-united.  She is now living with him, his wife Tammy, and their elderly springer spaniel, Belle, who is nearly deaf and blind.

They are convinced that it was more than just chance that Hannah is finally back with the Rogers family. They are sure Jeannie had something to do with it.

“She did that to help us,” Tammy told FOX 13. “She knows how hard it is going to be when Belle goes.”