Lost Dog And Owner To Be Reunited After 6 Years
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A woman and her dog are about to be reunited after being apart for over 2,000 days. It's all thanks to her persistent hope and never changing her phone number.
It's been a long six years for Sandra Campos, who has been searching for her precious pug, Chato. She got Chato while she was living while homeless in Davis.
"I was staying in a shelter at that time and he was my protector," Campos said. "It was hard on me but I never gave up on him."
Campos told CBS13 that Chato vanished a week after taking their last photo together. And the concerned pet owner tried tirelessly to find her dog.
"I kept putting fliers all over and put it on social media," Campos said.
During those years, she never got any bites and eventually moved back home to Las Cruces, New Mexico for a couple of years due to a family emergency.
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She never gave up hope that one day her phone would ring and someone would say they found her beloved Chato. That day came on November 21 when the Front Street Animal Shelter informed her that her pug had been found near 12th Avenue and northbound Highway 99.
"Even though, they say why pray for a dog? He wasn't a dog. He was family. And God works in mysterious ways," Campos said.
What wasn't a mystery is how the Front Street Animal Shelter managed to track Sandra down after all of this time and a move to a city more than 1,000 miles away.
"I knew he had a microchip on him and through that microchip was my only way. That's the reason I never changed my phone number," she said.
And now, Chato is on the road and will soon be reunited with his mom. It's all thanks to Erica Vasquez and her boyfriend Mike who saw Chato's story and wanted to help.
"This is an awesome Thanksgiving. One for our memory for sure," Vasquez said.
The couple volunteering to drive Chato nearly 16 hours and gave up their Thanksgiving to serve up a touching reunion.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip to do this for somebody else," Vasquez said,
"It's going to be a surreal and precious moment to see that happen."
Vasquez told CBS13 that the goal is to get Chato home just in time for Thanksgiving.
