Missing Dog Found In South Jersey 2 1/2 Years Later, Reunited With Bronx Woman
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Rihanna the dog was just a pup when she was snatched from a backyard in the Bronx, and more than two and a half years later, she was located two hours away in South Jersey.
As CBS2's Jessica Schneider reported, a microchip finally led to the reunion.
On Monday, Rihanna, 2 1/2, was back in the Bronx after being lost since the summer of 2013.
"When I went inside and came back out, she was gone," said Maria Gonzalez.
Rihanna was in the back alley behind Gonzalez's Bryant Avenue apartment. Gonzalez and her 10-year-old son, John, think someone jumped the fence and took off with the then weeks-old pit bull.
"It could've been from here, or they could've jumped over," Gonzalez said.
They scoured the streets, and after finding nothing for years, they suddenly got a call in mid-February from the Voorhees Animal Orphanage in South Jersey.
"The guy that scanned her said, 'We found a dog here, and we scanned her, and your name and information came up, and it says her name is Rihanna,' and that's when I started crying," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez got all three of her dogs implanted with the microchip. It is inserted in the back of the neck and has important information such as the owner's name, the address and the telephone number.
"What we don't know is how, from here, she got over there to New Jersey," Gonzalez said. "We don't know how that happened."
Volunteers from the animal orphanage drove Rihanna two hours north back to the Bronx for a reunion.
Gonzalez's son, John, was probably the most excited of all.
"We were always praying and everything," John Gonzalez said. "We went to the church every day, and when she came back, I was really excited."
The discovery still had them wondering Monday night, where Rihanna was all that time, and who may have finally abandoned her.