We know about the Star Wars movie “Return of the Jedi” – this is the amazing story of “Return of Chewy,” and it’s the best story I’ve heard in a long time.
Michelle Rhodes of Benton was distraught in September of 2016, searching desperately for her little dog, Chewy. He’d been taken from her yard and her kids were beside themselves, not knowing where this treasured member of their family could be. Michelle put up flyers, made calls and put notices all over social media, but she wouldn’t find Chewy. Until…
This week, Michelle said she was checking her voicemail and got one call that took her breath away. “I missed the initial call and got a message. I honestly had to go and sit down to catch my breath before calling back. I had a hard time speaking as I broke down crying and couldn’t get words out.”
It was Little Rock Animal Village on the other end of the call. Someone had seen Chewy on the side of Colonel Glenn Road on Tuesday morning and brought him to their care.
“Since he was microchipped, he was scanned and they called us.”
Michelle was so excited, she woke up her husband David Wright to tell him. “[David] was asleep after working 3rd shift. I scared him awake hollering!”
She put the kids in the car and went to the shelter right away. “We got there and I made the kids wait in the lobby as I wasn’t sure what shape he was in and then broke down again and had to pull myself together before reintroducing him to the kiddos.”
She didn’t even recognize him at first. His hair was way too long and matted and he had ticks. “Chewy at first seemed happy but didn’t act any different towards me than he did to the employees at the shelter. He then perked up when he smelled me and I kept talking to him.”
The family took him to the groomer next. They said he looked pretty bad but Shampoochie’s in Benton loved him back to his old self.
After taking a minute to recognize Michelle, re-familiarizing with the rest of the family was a little easier. “He was excited when he saw the kids and nearly flipped when he saw his daddy (David) He is now sound asleep in bed with me and the boys.”
She urges pet owners, “I am over the moon and can’t stress enough the importance of microchipping your fur babies. We would have never seen him again had we not! It’s been almost 2 years. I can’t tell you how hard and how long we looked and how many times I have gotten choked up with guilt and missed him.”
Michelle considers it to be a rare and lucky occurrence and is hoping the streak continues. “We bought lottery tickets last night. These kind of days just don’t happen often!”