“Mikey”, A Doggone Miracle

Sacramento, CA Thursday, December 16, 2004. After spending nearly 2 years in an animal shelter, “Mikey” has been reunited with his owner and is finally home.
Mikey had been separated from Matthew Strong after he and his wife divorced. His ex-wife kept Mikey until she moved and her landlord would not allow dogs, Strong explained.
"She told me she was taking him to a shelter," he said.
By this time, Strong had moved to Sacramento, where he also was living in a complex that did not allow pets. Strong even asked friends to take Mikey in, but had no luck. He thought often about Mikey, remembering that he didn't want a dog at first, but how after his wife brought the puppy home, he became more and more attached to the dog. Soon, he and Mikey were best buddies.
“I thought I’d never see Mikey again”
18 Months later when he was having trouble sleeping, Strong began surfing the Internet, and found himself at Google.
“Out of curiosity I typed in “Tahoe Mikey”.” Strong explained. “And there he was, the very first result; staring at me was Mikey!”
Strong worried that Mikey was possibly no longer at the shelter. He sent an email to the organization that had posted Mikey’s photo. Connie Nowlin of the Wylie Animal Rescue Foundation contacted Strong and Mikey’s identity was confirmed. Mikey had been at the shelter for 18 months.
"Mikey was so lucky. WARF took really good care of him," he said. "They had a kiddy pool with rocks for him to play with, volunteers that would take him on long walks, and people would bring him home to play."
A few days later Strong made the two hour journey to the Placer County Animal Shelter in Tahoe City where Mikey was housed. Mikey recognized him right away and was ready to go home. Before leaving the shelter, Mikey demonstrated to the WARF volunteers some hidden tricks he learned from Strong years before.
Samantha Loudon, one of the co-directors of Wylie Animal Rescue Foundation, said the reunion must have been meant to be.
"He had been adopted two weeks ago, but was brought back because one of the roommates wasn't comfortable with him," she said.
Strong and many of his friends at work have pitched in donations to give to WARF for taking such good care of Mikey.
“Mikey has always been my best buddy and now he’s home back where he belongs. We have a lot of catching up to do and I’m looking forward to it. I’m so thankful for WARF and all the volunteers who helped bring Mikey home, they made us a very merry Christmas.”