A family whose dog has been missing for nearly five years was reunited with her this week, after she was located hundreds of miles away.
This week, the beloved dog’s family received text messages that she had been found. «I was like, ‘No way,’» said Stephanie Malmstrom of Baytown, Texas. «This is insane. Like I won $1 million and a cruise also.» «We were all crying,» Malstrom added. «Me and my girls were just boohooing.»
Mysteriously, Sheba was spotted more than 600 miles away in Borger, Texas, a town in the state’s Panhandle. An animal control officer saw the dog on the street and noticed she was acting differently.
«Her behavior just showed me this isn’t the normal dog running loose,» said Jared Harper, who doesn’t know who had Sheba, or how she ended up so far away from home.
Sheba’s family knows that she was stolen. Back in 2017, the family’s home surveillance system captured dognappers swiping her from their yard, where she had been sleeping.
«She runs from underneath the porch, they scoop her up, walk around the back side of the truck, load her up and take off,» said Malmstrom.
With the help of Pilots N Paws , an organization dedicated to rescuing animals by returning them to their families, Sheba was loaded onto the plane for a flight to «home.»
When Sheba stepped off the aircraft, he immediately recognized everyone, especially his owner’s daughters, and ran to meet them.
«I felt every emotion you can imagine,» Moore-Malmstrom said.
Finally with the dog safe in the arms of her family, the woman also reconstructed the story: Sheba was kidnapped from their backyard in Baytown, Texas, in 2018, was brought to the Texas Panhandle, where she was eventually adopted by a family, with whom she lived for four and a half years. When that family had to move and having decided they did not want to care for her, they left Sheba on the street. The dog lived outside, cared for by a local teenager until an animal control officer found her and checked her microchip.
«I thank the many people who came together to bring her home to me,» said Moore-Malmstrom, who will be able to have Sheba spend the rest of her life with her family.
