LIVINGSTON — A dog missing for two years is finally back home thanks to a microchip and an unexpected phone call. Bear the dog was rescued from the Tangipahoa Animal Shelter about three years ago by Ponchatoula Police Chief Bry Layrisson. But two years ago, Bear ran away from home in Loranger.
“He just ran away from the farm. Never came back,” said Layrisson. “We called all our neighbors, couldn’t find him. We thought he was gone forever.”
That all changed at the beginning of April, when someone from Pet Watch reached out to Layrisson.
“It had been so long when I got the text or email from Pet Watch, I thought it was a scam, because my three other rescue dogs are in my backyard,” he said. “I’m like, ‘I’m not missing a dog.'”
The call that changed it all
Then he got a phone call from the Livingston Parish Animal Shelter. “They called and said, ‘We found your dog,'” he recalled. “I had to call my dad. It had been so long I forgot about my baby Bear.”
“It’s usually people’s favorite job to do, because it’s the nice phone call you get to make,” Livingston Parish Animal Shelter Director Amanda Forde said. “You get to say, ‘I know that you’re probably stressing but I have your baby. Come to the shelter, we’ve got your dog!'”
“Sometimes people are like, ‘What are you talking about? I don’t own a dog matching this description,'” she said. “We tell them that we traced the microchip and their name was provided, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, wow. I owned years ago!'”
Bear’s reunion
After the Livingston Parish Animal Shelter’s call, Layrisson headed that way to be reunited with his long lost dog. “There was no hesitation whatsoever,” Layrisson said. “Dreams come true. We thought he was gone forever.”
“Sometimes it takes a dog a couple of minutes to smell and remember, but they usually always do,” Forde said. “And Bear looked really comfortable.”
No one knows where Bear has been for the last two years, but Forde believes someone was taking care of him.
“He was still healthy and happy and friendly and looked like he had been cared for and not neglected during the time that he was away from his family,” she said. Layrisson said he can tell Bear has lost some weight, and is focused on getting him back to good health.
After Bear ran away, Layrisson rescued another lab. “Now he’ll have a friend to hang out with him at the farm,” he said. “Hopefully she’ll keep him from running off.”
Microchipping
Bear wouldn’t be back with his family after two years if it weren’t for his microchip.
“The way that microchips work is that there is a scanner and it pops up with a very long number that is associated with the chip,” Forde explained. “There’s a microchip database, and you type in the microchip number, and it tells you which microchip company services that chip. The chip is traced and you call the company to get the registered information.”
“Chips aren’t always kept up to date. Sometimes it is the owner’s responsibility to ensure that their phone numbers are kept up to date, or their addresses are correct,” Forde continued.
“As a dog owner of five dogs now, I can’t stress how important it is to get your animals chip,” Layrisson said. “This is the second time I’ve recovered one being contacted through the pet watch chip system.”
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