The beginning of the story was a happy one, and the ending could have been straight out of a Disney movie. But exactly what happened in between is a mystery.
Georgia residents April Edwards and Michael and Darcy Lucier drove more than 100 miles through the snow Wednesday to pick up their dog at Quintard Veterinary Clinic - nine months after the four-year-old Great Pyrenees disappeared from their Marietta home.
"We thought we would never see her again," said a tearful Mrs. Lucier after being reunited with her dog, Greta. "After several months of not hearing anything, we started to give up hope. I just can't imagine how she got this far."
Greta was discovered and later picked up on Choccolocco Road Tuesday by Anniston physician Dr. Tony Esposito and his wife, Lisa.
"There was a group of them riding that morning and saw the dog, and when they came back she was still there," said Mrs. Esposito. "We have a Great Pyrenees, and knew it shouldn't just be out running loose like that. We went back to feed her, but we couldn't just leave her there, so we brought her home."
The next day, the Espositos took the dog to Dr. Barry Nicholls at Quintard Veterinary Hospital to have the dog checked out.
"She actually was in very good condition," said Nicholls. "She's not thin, so I have to think someone has been taking care of her."
Not only did Nicholls give Greta a clean bill of health, but he also was able to immediately match her up with her owner, thanks to a microchip she carried that allowed Nicholls to identify her.
The tiny chip was embedded between the dog's shoulder blades and contained an identification number. The number was then matched up with the owner through the company's database.
Different companies make the chips, so Dr. Nicholls says the scanner won't always read the number, even though it will beep when it finds the chip, letting the vet know that the dog does indeed have an owner.
The procedure of injecting the chip typically costs between $30 and $40.
"Typically any vet and most animal shelters will scan lost dogs to see if they have one of these chips," Nicholls. "Of course, most of them don't, so I was a bit surprised when this one pops up with an ID number."
The number that came up allowed Nicholls to look up the dog in a database, which in turn led to the Lucier's surprise trip to Anniston.
Mrs. Lucier and her daughter, Ms. Edwards, live next door to one another, but they had gone out to lunch Wednesday afternoon when the call came in.
"We had just gotten home, and I was standing in the kitchen when I saw April run past the window," said Mrs. Lucier. "She came running in and said, 'Somebody found Greta in Alabama, and they're keeping her for us to come get her.'"
"They called me at work and asked how quick could I get home," added Lucier.
Mrs. Lucier says they had only had Greta for six months before she disappeared last April, but that in that time she had become very much a part of the family.
"When we came home and found her gone, we just assumed some kids had let her out of the gate," she said. "Someone put up a notice a few days later saying they had found a dog that matched her description, but when we finally were able to get in touch with the woman, she said someone had already claimed the dog."
At that point, the family reported Greta stolen and, in the ensuing months, went so far as to fax descriptions to all metro Atlanta veterinary clinics.
For obvious reasons, those faxes never made their way to Anniston, even though Greta did. Exactly how, we may never know.
"I have no clue how she got here," said Mrs. Lucier. "I know we tried everything to find her, and that microchip ended up being her only saving grace."
