For every story of a dog gone missing, there seems to be another one of a lost dog found years later, and sometimes thousands of miles away. Like this one, about a missing Beagle named Roscoe, who recently resurfaced more than 1,000 miles away from his Wichita, Kansas, home eight years after disappearing.
Missing Beagle Reappears
In 2015, when Roscoe was just 1 year old, he disappeared while his family was out.
“There were no signs of him getting out or holes dug under the fence,” dog mom Nicolle Leon told Fox News Digital. “I always had a feeling someone stole him or someone found him and kept him — and whoever had him knew he was missing or stolen.”
Leon posted fliers and alerted her local Humane Society, but the dog didn’t resurface. Though Roscoe was microchipped, years passed without a phone call about the pup’s whereabouts. Leon’s two children, then 8-year-old Alani and 5-year-old Alex, were especially heartbroken because they were gifted Roscoe when he was a puppy.
But recently, Roscoe crossed paths with Katherine Miller, an animal advocate, and Shae DeBerry, administrator of the Lost & Found Pets in Caldwell, Idaho. Miller happened to have a microchip scanner.
“Many of us are in rescue and have purchased [microchip scanners] to help because there is a need,” DeBerry said. “Animals are found after hours when shelters are closed, and there is literally nowhere for them to go if animal control is not on duty.”
Roscoe was the first animal Miller had scanned with the device…and there was a match.
A Long Way From Home
When Leon got the call that her pup had been found, she was confused because the caller was in Idaho.
“I said, ‘Oh, that’s not my dog. I live in Kansas,’” Leon told the animal sleuths. But when she heard the dog was a Beagle, she knew it had to be Roscoe.
The pup was transported to West Valley Humane Society Animal Shelter in Caldwell for safekeeping. Leon also wanted to ensure that Roscoe hadn’t been adopted by another family. When no one claimed him, she made arrangements for him to come home to Kansas via a transport driver.
“When he got out of the van the morning he came home, he came wagging his tail right to me,” Leon told Fox Digital. “I brought him inside and my kids [had] just woken up. He was all over them wagging his tail with such excitement. I wasn’t sure if he really would remember us — but the way he acted, I think he does.”
Now, Roscoe is getting “all the love,” to the point of being “spoiled.” But he isn’t the only canine in residence; the Leon family brought two more dogs home after Roscoe’s disappearance. Talk about a full house!
Leon’s kids – who are now teenagers – are curious about what Roscoe was up to for eight years and how he got so far away from home. But Roscoe’s not talking.
“Not knowing his past life and how his last eight years have been is hard, but knowing we can give him the best for the rest of his life is great,” Alani Leon said.
