By Brian Daly, QMI Agency
The Toronto Sun
MONTREAL – It seems the dog will come back, though they sure thought it was a goner.
A female black Labrador mix named Pollux is scheduled to be reunited with its family in Montreal later this week after it turned up 4,000 kilometres away in Kamloops, B.C., more than a year after it went missing.
Pollux was tracked down thanks to an implanted microchip that revealed Quebecer Isabelle Robitaille as the owner.
She was shocked to have received a call from the SPCA last Friday. “We were told that this chip under the skin could be used if ever the animal disappeared,” Robitaille told QMI Agency. “No one ever thought it would come to good use like that.”
The story began on June 20, 2010, when Pollux escaped from Robitaille’s home in east-end Montreal and vanished. Robitaille said she can’t understand why Pollux ran away.
“I left the door open, and she just disappeared,” she said. “This is a very active dog. She might have been tempted to take refuge in a train wagon and found herself later at the other end of Canada.”
The details of Pollux’s journey are still not clear.
Sarah Gerow, acting branch manager at the Kamloops SPCA, said someone came by the office last Friday to drop off a stray black Labrador mix. The SPCA staff nicknamed her Suki.
“She came in as a stray and the finder had cared for her for a little while,” Gerow told QMI Agency on Tuesday. “We scanned her for a microchip, which we traced to a vet clinic in Quebec which put them in touch with the dog’s owner.” Recent photos of Suki were sent to Robitaille who immediately recognized the animal as Pollux, though the dog had lost quite a bit of weight.
The owner was quickly confronted with another problem — she didn’t have enough money to pay for a flight home. That’s when New-York based SPCA International came to Pollux’s rescue, said Gerow.
“They are willing to provide the funding to fly Pollux home, she said. “Probably later on this week. We’re just waiting for flight details.”
Meanwhile, Pollux is soaking in all the attention while letting the humans figure out the mystery of its 4,000-km, 12-month trek. “I guess only the dog knows,” said Gerow.