A lost tea-cup chihuahua has been reunited with his owners after being found in St Albans - three months and 100 miles away from home.
The one-year-old beige coloured pedigree puppy was handed into Animalism Veterinary St Albans on St Stephen’s Hill after he was reportedly stolen from a park off Beresford Drive in Woodbridge, Suffolk, back on April 12.
Romany Woolnough, sister of Stanley’s owner Christie Barr, said: “When he went missing, the whole family was so worried, especially mum as he was in her care at the time and was worried about how my sister would react.
“Mum was devastated when he disappeared, she looks after him full time for my sister who has young children, and he is a great companion for her.”
Romany quickly set up a ‘Help us Find Stanley’ Facebook page campaign, in the hope that members of the public would have some information on the pups disappearance.
Romany said: “The support has been absolutely amazing. I don’t know what we would have done without the support of people on social media and lost dog pages.”
Someone saw Stanley on the streets and took him to the St Albans vets where his microchip was scanned.
Romany said: “He needed some tender loving care. After an examination, the vets also thought that he could have been taken and then bred.
“Initially when he came home, he was a little traumatised and anxious at first - but he has settling back in very well now.”
Micro-chipping became a legal requirement in the UK back in April 2016, and Romany says that his microchip brought Stanley home.
“My message to people would be to get your dog micro-chipped - that’s what saved him,” Romany explained. “I would also say to people who lose pets to never give up. Many people around us started to accept the fact that he was gone, but never give up.”
Stanley’s owner Christie said she was in shock when the phone call came through: “I literally couldn’t believe it - I still didn’t believe it until I got there, I kept thinking it was going to be a different dog, even though it was his microchip.
“It’s absolutely amazing. We were losing hope but never forgetting and carrying on with the search. It has been really surreal.”
She said she “couldn’t thank the lady [who found him] enough”.
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