Lost Dog Finally Returns Home After Five Years Missing

We’ll never know where she was for so many years, but a beloved family dog is finally back at home where she belongs, more than five years after disappearing from home.

Five years ago, Sydney Blizzard let her Dachshund mix, Xala, outside her North Carolina home to potty. That was the last time she and her family would see their beloved dog for another five years.

“I let her out to use the bathroom one morning. When I went to let her back in, I couldn’t find her. We drove around the neighborhood, we looked everywhere. We called neighbors. She never turned up,” Blizzard recalled to WITN.

That was until last month when, out of the blue, Blizzard received a text message that simply read, “We found your dog Xala.”

The text message came from Judy Newberry, a dog lover in Virginia.

Newberry explained that she’d found Xala a year and a half earlier, on a leash, abandoned in a Hampton, Virginia parking lot. Although she put up ‘found dog’ signs, made calls to animal control, and knocked on nearby doors, no one ever stepped forward to claim to dog. So, she decided to give her a loving home.

But, during a veterinary appointment last month, Newberry remembered that the dog she’d been caring for for more than a year might have a microchip. The veterinarian scanned her and, to Newberry’s amazement, the dog was registered to Sydney Blizzard in North Carolina.

As fate would have it, a friend of Blizzard’s happened to be in Virginia that day and was happy to pick up Xala and drive her back home only two days later.

Blizzard may never know whether Xala was stolen or if she ran away five years ago. The family will never know where she lived or who cared for her before Newberry found her in the parking lot. But, they’re just thrilled she’s finally back home after all these years.

Most of all, she’s happy the kind-hearted woman that found her was willing to return her after a year and a half together.

“I knew it was the right thing to do. I don’t know where that dog has been or what she’s gone through, but I know she’s made a lot of people happy,” said Newberry.

Remember, in addition to posting signs and calling local animal shelters, if you find a lost dog, always visit a veterinarian or shelter to have the animal scanned for a microchip. And, if you have a dog, make sure they’re chipped and that their registration is kept current, even years after they go missing. Miracles DO happen.