Dog lost in Oklahoma found roaming the streets in North Carolina, shelter says
A dog discovered 1,000 miles from home has been reunited with its owner thanks to a microchip found by shelter staff in North Carolina.
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It remains a mystery how the 10-year-old pet made it from Oklahoma to North Carolina in a little over two weeks.
“We found Rio … as a stray in Greensboro this week and took him into the shelter’s care. When our team scanned him for a microchip, we found an owner — in Oklahoma,” Guilford County Animal Services said in an Aug. 16 Facebook post.
“His owner, Melissa, told us Rio had gone missing at the end of July. She’d been checking everywhere for him and said he’s an elaborate escape artist who tends to bolt when he gets scared. We’re not sure exactly how he made it all the way to North Carolina.”
Greensboro is located along Interstate 40, which also travels through the heart of Oklahoma.
One possibility, the shelter says, is that someone found him “along the way,” and he escaped from them, too.
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After being alerted to the unusual discovery, the dog’s owner “booked the first flight she could” and reunited with Rio at the shelter in Greensboro, officials said.
“Rio is now back home in Oklahoma with his family and his 9-month-old canine sister, who we’re sure was very happy to have her brother back,” the shelter wrote.
The owner has been identified as Melissa Burris by ABC News, which reports she lives in the Tulsa area. “When I got that call that he had been found, I was just floored,” Burris told ABC. “I could not believe he had made it all the way to North Carolina.”
The animal shelter’s Facebook post had amassed more than 5,500 reactions and comments as of Aug. 19, many from people noting border collies are known for being highly intelligent.
“Not the least bit surprised a border collie found a way to travel 1,000 miles. Smart, resourceful doggos,” David Brown wrote on the department’s Facebook page.
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Greensboro is about a 90-mile drive northeast from uptown Charlotte.
