His dog was stolen from his yard 6 years ago. Today he got a message that left him shaking

Most animal owners consider their pets a valued part of the family and the loss of a dear cat or dog can be a devastating blow. For one man, he faced the unimaginable when his dog was stolen from him six years ago. It was crushing to have his four legged friend taken from his own back yard.

Casey Church eventually gave up hope when his dog wasn’t found and tried his best to come to terms with the fact that he would never see his pet again. He hoped, at the very least, that whoever had stolen the dog would treat him well.

Six years later, Casey got the surprise of a lifetime — he received a life changing phone call that he almost couldn’t believe.

You see, Casey had microchipped his dog when he was a puppy and that microchip eventually helped Casey get his beloved pet back in his life. The dog came into the care of the Newcastle Animal Shelter in Oklahoma, where the employees discovered who the dog really belonged to.

Casey explained: “Six years later, I get a phone message from Pet Link that says we found your dog.”

Tracking down Casey was no easy task, it turned out, as the animal shelter’s scanner wasn’t working and they had to find another shelter who could scan the dog.

Though the chip coud be read, it was a deadend initially, as they discovered that the chip was no longer registered, but they knew they had to find the dog’s owner.

The shelter did a bit of detective work to track down Casey, contacting the manufacturer’s database of clinics it sells microchips to and from there they could follow the trail to find the animal hospital where the chip had been impanted. As luck would have it, the animal hospital still had Casey’s information on file!

The animal shelter staff explained: “got a call from the Newcastle shelter that they had a dog brought in yesterday that they couldn’t find their microchip scanner. So, they asked if I could come by and get some photos of him and scan him for a chip.”

Casey was finally reunited with his pet and they were able to reconnect again. Casey said of the reunion, “I’ve got me my son back.”

While Casey saw that his dog had grown a little older and now had gray hair, the dog remembered his well loved owner and they could now make up for all of the lost time they spent apart.

The reunion was emotional as the dog clearly was excited to be back with his family, with Casey remarking, “He’s still kinda wacky a little at times, but he’s still the same dog.”

For anyone on the fence about the extra cost of microchipping a pet, Casey says this is proof that it’s definitely worth it, as he explained, “That chip really, really can do some wonders.”

One commenter on Facebook post about the story remarked, “The microchip needs to double as a GPS!”