Mystery of missing Scooby solved as he is reunited with owners after they saw he was up for adoption at Bishop’s Stortford’s Animal Rescue Charity
A dog who spent seven-and-a-half months at a Bishop’s Stortford animal shelter was reunited with his London owners after they spotted his photo online.
Joe and Shannon Guy feared the worst and that they would never see Scooby the two-year-old Siberian husky again.
But their pet pooch was beside himself with excitement when they turned up at the Animal Rescue Charity (ARC) in Farnham Road to collect him on Sunday – Shannon’s birthday.
He pulled welfare manager Daniel Probets across the yard when he caught sight of the couple, who had been searching for him ever since he bolted out the front door of their east London home on February 3.
They had been scouring the websites of rescue homes in and around the capital when they stumbled across Scooby’s image on ARC’s rehoming page.
He had been brought into the charity on February 12 after a train commuter heading home to Stortford found him wandering around Liverpool Street station the previous evening.
“He looked quite healthy and wasn’t injured, just a bit skinny, but he seemed OK,” said centre supervisor Imogen Carter.
“We scanned his microchip, but it wasn’t registered to the owners but to the breeder.
“Owners have seven days to come forward and claim their pet, and after that we can rehome them, but because Scooby’s quite a big dog, it was very difficult to rehome him, so he’s been with us ever since.
“He’s such a lovely dog – there’s not a bad bone in his body. He’s been consistently a good boy while he’s been here and it was so lovely when he was reunited with his owners.
“Scooby was pulling and howling to get back to them and we all started crying. They thought he was dead and that they’d never find him – he was so happy to see them.”
Imogen said the couple contacted ARC on Tuesday last week (Sept 17). “We got a phone call from a guy who said ‘I think you’ve got my dog’.
“He was really shaken, and after speaking to them they sent us lots of photos to make sure it was Scooby.
“They then just turned up at the kennels the next day, and before we could get Scooby out they were both in tears and Scooby was beside himself.”
They returned on Sunday for the official handover, where they revealed that Scooby had worn a harness, a collar and name tag with their contact details on. But by the time he was discovered at Liverpool Street, he was no longer wearing them.
“We don’t know if he’d been stolen and they [the thief] had taken them off and then dumped him, or if he got them off by himself,” said Imogen.
“He was so happy to see them he didn’t look back as they took him home.”
ARC was founded in 1991 by mother and daughter Jan and Fiona Rose and is now at a purpose-built centre on the outskirts of Stortford, having previously been in Foxdells Lane.
Photos by Vikki Lince
