A Chihuahua who escaped from her family’s yard in Mississippi five years ago has been found hundreds of miles away, in central Florida.
Penny, a six-year-old Chihuahua mix, was miraculously spotted last week wandering the streets near Briana Rideout’s home in DeLand.
‘I put up posters at the intersection. My boyfriend and I knocked on every door for about a block radius around us. We made friends with many neighbors, but no one claimed her,’ Rideout told WESH.
Left with no other options, Rideout brought Penny to the county shelter on Monday, where staffers scanned her microchip – and discovered just how far she wandered.
They then called Penny’s owners, the Taylors, who got on the road for a 10-hour drive the very next day to bring their pooch home.
‘We were coming to get our dog,’ Kristy Taylor said, expressing gratitude to the shelter employees.
She explained that she had given up hope of ever finding Penny.
‘We thought Penny was a goner for sure,’ she said.
‘A few months went by. We had posted her in some Facebook missing pet groups and we never got any bites, so we just assumed that she moved on with life, with a new family. And indeed, she did.’
Taylor also said in a video posted on the Volusia County page that it is a miracle Penny was ever identified as ‘I almost didn’t chip her’ thinking she would not go anywhere.
It remains unclear where Penny has been this whole time, but she appears happy, healthy and well-fed.
‘She’s a little bigger,’ Taylor noted. ‘She’s put on a little weight.’
Volusia County Animal Services Director Angela Miedema now believes Penny has likely been cared for during her disappearance.
‘With her condition being so good, it’s conceivable that somebody would have cared for her now,’ she said. ‘She could have even gone through a couple different homes at this point.
‘We really don’t know her background or anything like that.’
Either way, the Taylors are just grateful to have their furry friend back in their lives, as they shared happy tears and long overdue hugs.