Family reuinted with dog missing 5 months

BRADENTON (FOX 13) - A little girl and her family are overwhelmed and relieved after being reunited with their grandmother’s dog who was missing for five months.

The six-year-old Pomeranian, named Sassy, went missing from Barbara Dawson’s Bradenton home. She, her daughter, and her granddaughter were devastated – sure that Sassy wasn’t coming home.

But this week they got the news they never expected. Sassy had been found 200 miles away by an officer in Pembroke Pines. The officer tracked down Dawson through Sassy’s microchip, and on Friday, reunited the pup with her family.

Dawson has three other dogs at home – Charlotte, Angel, and Rosco. They were also happy to see their long-lost sister Sassy.

“I've had all four of them since they were eight weeks old. Sassy is six,” Dawson told FOX 13 News. “She's very outgoing, happy. She's friendly with everybody.”

Dawson remembers the day Sassy disappeared like it was yesterday.

“I let my dogs out in the backyard to go potty. They're out there for no more than 15-20 minutes,” she recalled. “[I] went out to bring them back in and Ms. Sassy was missing. I made posters, posted them out. My daughter, Dina put them on Facebook, and nothing until the 17th, I believe, of this month.”

June 17 is when they got the call that Sassy had been found.

“My husband got the call, and I was in a store. I was in a Dollar General when he come in and told me he had a picture of my dog, that someone found her. The moment that I walked into my house and coming home from vacation and she was there,” Dawson said. “I didn't let her leave my side. It was like heaven. I was reunited with one of my children again.”

Barbara Dawson credits the Pembroke Pines Police Department with having a microchip scanner. Most departments don't have them.            

“I never gave up hope,” she said. “None of my dogs, I would never give up hope if they get out.”