MYRTLE BEACH (UPI) -- A North Carolina dog, left at a farm in Virginia, traveled more than 500 miles on its own to try to make it home, his owner said.
Mark Wessells had taken his black Labrador to visit his father at a farm in Winchester, Va., thinking to leave Buck there while he was in the process of moving, The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News reported. Wessells said he couldn‘t take care of the dog temporarily.
“I wanted him to be up in Virginia where my dad has all this other property and he would’ve been happy,” he told the newspaper. But a week later, Wessels‘ father called to say Buck was gone.
“We thought somebody stole him because that was the only thing we could think of,” Wessells said. “For the longest time, my dad and brother had been keeping an eye out for him, but never saw him.”
About six months later Brett Gallagher found Buck in Bellegrove, a Carolina Forest, S.C., subdivision, about two weeks ago, not far from Myrtle Beach. When he got a chance he took the dog to an animal hospital where Buck’s microchip identifying the dog and his owner was found.
“The nurse came back and said, ‘Are you Buck?’ and he got so excited,” Gallagher told the newspaper. “It must have been the first time he heard his name since he left.”
The newspaper said when Buck and Wessells were reunited at the hospital, the dog showered him with kisses.
<관련 한글 기사>
804km를 걸어 집 찾은 똑똑한 개 화제
미국 버지니아 주의 농장에서 버려졌던 개가 804킬로미터를 혼자 걸어와 결국 집에 도착했다고 개 주인이 밝현다.
마크 웨셀즈는 그의 검정 라브라도 애완용 개를 데리고 윈체스터 농장의 아버지 집에 방문했다가 잠깐 개를 맡긴 사이 ’벅’이 없어졌다는 전화를 아버지에게 받았다고 말했다.
6개월이 흐른 뒤에야 ’벅은’ 한 캘리포니아 숲에서 발견되었다. 그곳은 웨셀즈가 벅에게 마이크로칩을 달려고 갔던 동물 병원이 가까이에 있는 해변 근처였다. 동물 병원의 간호사가 벅을 발견했고 개와 주인은 병원에서 다시 만날 수 있었다.
