Owners of Stanley, the tea-cup chihuahua, have finally been reunited with their much loved family pet after he went missing three months ago.
The one-year-old beige coloured pedigree puppy was handed into a vets in Hertfordshire nearly 100 miles away from his home after he was reportedly stolen from a park off Beresford Drive in Woodbridge, back on April 12.
Romany Woolnough, sister of Stanley’s owner Christie, said: “When he went missing, the whole family was so worried, especially mum as he was in her care at the time and was worried about how my sister would react.
“Mum was devastated when he disappeared, she looks after him full time for my sister who has young children, and he is a great companion for her.”
Romany quickly set up a ‘Help us Find Stanley’ Facebook page campaign, in the hope that members of the public would have some information on the pups disappearance.
Romany said: “The support has been absolutely amazing. I don’t know what we would have done without the support of people on social media and lost dog pages.
“Stanley was found by someone who saw him walking the streets of Hertfordshire, and I think, due to the thousands of shares across social media, whoever took him might have dumped him.”
The person who found Stanley took him to a vets in the county, which borders west of Cambridgeshire, where they examined him and reunited the pup with his owner after scanning his microchip.
Romany said: “He needed some tender loving care. After an examination, the vets also thought that he could have been taken and then bred.
“Initially when he came home, he was a little traumatised and anxious at first - but he has settling back in very well now.”
Micro-chipping became a legal requirement in the UK back in April 2016, and Romany says that the microchip saved Stanley.
“My message to people would be to get your dog micro-chipped - that’s what saved him”, Romany explains. “I would also say to people who lose pets to never give up. Many people around us started to accept the fact that he was gone, but never give up.
“Campaigning and the power of social media also helps, and if you are trying to find a lost pet and don’t have access to the internet, get someone who has the internet to set up a page for you”.
For more information on micro-chipping laws click here.
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