Dorchester Paws reunites missing 18-year-old dog with its owner

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - A family was in utter disbelief when it received a phone call that their elderly dog, who had been missing for three years, had been found and was ready to come home.

The dog, whose name turned out to be Binky (or Mr. B), is 18 years old. When a good Samaritan found Binky, he took the dog to the shelter to be scanned. Shelter workers immediately began treating a list of conditions that included severe matting, malnourishment, overgrown nails, rotting teeth. Those issues were compounded by Binky’s age.

While they treated him, they scanned for a microchip and was able to locate his owners, who live six hours from Summerville.

When the shelter contacted his owners, they said they had waited by the phone for years hoping they would hear that he had been found and scanned. A dedicated volunteer brought Binky back home for the big tear-filled reunion with his family.

“Binky’s story is not only heart-wrenching, but a story of the importance of microchips and doing the right thing,” Pet Support Department Manager Lanea Wilson said. “If someone would have got Binky scanned when he was first found in Georgia he could have been reunited a lot sooner. Somehow this little guy made it up to Summerville, got loose again and was finally brought in to be scanned for a microchip.”

Wilson says microchips are truly life-saving and the best way to get a lost pet back home.

Donations are a critical part of allowing Dorchester Paws to live out their mission to help animals like Binky, on a daily basis that come into their care needing life-saving medical treatment. To donate, visit dorchesterpaws.org.

Wilson urges anyone who finds a lost pet to take it to their nearest veterinary office or animal shelter so the animal can be scanned for a microchip.

“Someone could be missing that pet, whether only a few hours or years, they may have a family desperately looking for them somewhere,” Wilson said.

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