It never ceases to amaze us how far from home lost dogs turn up – and how many years have often passed since their families last saw them. This story involves a missing New Mexico dog named Nugget who went missing from his home in Farmington in 2015 only to reappear in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, over seven years later.
Missing New Mexico Dog Found 1,700 Miles From Home
Nugget is a 16-year-old dog who was recently seen limping down the road in the rain in South Carolina. A Travelers Rest resident named Jennifer spotted the injured canine from her porch.
“My first thought was I need to take him to the emergency vet and get him checked for a microchip,” Jennifer told local news station WYFF4.
Jennifer rescued the pup and took him to an animal hospital. The dog was scanned and sure enough, he had a microchip that identified him as Nugget. What wasn’t expected, however, was the address that came back linked to the microchip. It was 1,700 miles away!
Jennifer texted the dog parent’s registered phone number. A woman named Jessie Springer answered. She couldn’t believe that her dog had made it across several states, much less that he was still alive.
“When Jen texted me, I was like, wait, what?” Springer told WYFF4. “This dog never left my side, so I thought he had like walked off to die because he was already old.”
Lost Dog Reunited With Mom
Carolina Loving Hound Rescue (CLHR) collaborated with Jennifer and Springer to reunite Nugget with his family. The organization even footed the bill for Springer to pick the pup up in South Carolina.
In a Facebook update, CLHR reported that “Nugget and Mom had a great flight home yesterday. Jessie said people at the Dallas Airport recognized Nugget as he was prancing around.”
The post continued: “Huge shout out to all the flight Crews at American for letting Nugget sit in Moms Lap. They where both exhausted when they got home and went to bed.”
No one knows how Nugget made it from the Land of Enchantment to the Palmetto State, but CLHR believes that someone likely picked up the dog while traveling cross-country and didn’t realize he belonged to someone else.
