GARDEN CITY, Mich. – A German shepherd mix named Max has been reunited with his original owner after being lost for six years and living with another family in Garden City.
Stray dogs in Garden City end up at Lucky Dog Luxury Daycare & Boarding and when an owner shows up looking for their lost dog with photos and a name that matches the information on the microchip, the dog is returned.
But in this case, it turns out the dog was stolen, and his original owner never gave up hope.
Max is a 12-year-old German shepherd mix, and had been lost for six years. He was stolen from Triette “Tri” Cathey six years ago and ended up with a family in Garden City.
The plot thickens when Max ends up on the streets, is taken to Lucky Dog, and is marked as a stray. When the organization discovered Max had been microchipped, the store owner called the police.
After store owner Stacey Karafotis called the police, Max’s original owner Tri Cathey was notified that her dog had been found.
“The (Max’s) owner calls me and says, ‘Is this Stacey?’ I said ‘Yeah,’ she goes ‘Do you have my dog, Max?’ And I’m like, ‘You already picked him up,’ she goes ‘No, I’ve been missing my dog Max for more than four years,” Karafotis explained.
After Cathey had been notified, the Garden City family turned up at Lucky Dog, looking for Max. They had his name and pictures that matched the information on the microchip, so Lucky Dog returned him to who they thought were his family.
Karafotis received the call from Cathey, who’s linked to Max’s microchip, and told Cathey that she could help connect her to the Garden City family.
“She said, oh my goodness, she said we have her name, we have her number, we can connect you all,” Cathey said.
It was later revealed that the Garden City family had no idea that Max had been stolen from Cathey six years ago.
After Cathey and the family talked things over with Karafotis, they decided the right thing to do was return Max to Cathey.
“I called both owners and they met here the next day, they’ve kept in contact and they’re gonna be the pet sitters for Max when the old owners goes on vacation,” Karafotis said. “To find an owner that keeps her registration up and doesn’t change their phone number and still wants their dog back, it’s unbelievable, really.”
Karafotis said it is vital that people get their dogs microchipped. Not only does it prove ownership in cases like these, but it also prevents dogs from getting euthanized if they end up at a shelter.
Cathey told Local 4 that she has Max’s mom, Honeybun who is 18 years old and in poor health, and believes she had been hanging on in hopes she’d be reunited with her son.