Rogers resident Stephanie Roberts says her 14-year-old daughter was on the verge of giving up hope that Koda, the family’s 9-pound Pomeranian, would ever come home.
Koda had been missing since May 25, when Stephanie’s two children, playing on a Slip ‘N Slide in the yard, suddenly noticed their 8-year-old pet dog had wandered off.
“They turned around and he was gone,” she said.
The family stayed up until 4 a.m., walking the neighborhood, looking for Koda.
No luck.
For the next few months, the family posted fliers and knocked on doors.
Still no Koda.
Then a couple of weeks ago an Animal Services official called the Roberts’ home from San Diego.
In Southern California.
1,533 miles from Rogers.
“‘We’ve got your dog,'” Stephanie remembers the official saying over the phone.
Stephanie, who works at the Walmart home office in Bentonville, said she has only been to San Diego once, when she was 14, the age her daughter is now.
All she can figure is that someone took Koda to Southern California in a car.
Some person in San Diego found Koda wandering around and turned him in to Animal Services, Stephanie said.
Officials there located the Roberts from a microchip embedded in Koda when Stephanie got him almost a decade ago.
Now Koda is making the flight home to XNA tonight (Aug. 20), and the family is overjoyed.
Stephanie said the only concern is that Koda gets motion sickness and has never flown on a plane, but with all he’s been through, he’s expected to rrruff it out.
