The border collie’s owner hopped on a plane to bring him home the moment the shelter called
Credit: WFMY News 2/Youtube
NEED TO KNOW
- Rio, a 10-year-old border collie, somehow traveled 1,000 miles from Oklahoma to North Carolina after disappearing from home
- A microchip scan at a North Carolina shelter helped reunite Rio with his owner weeks after he went missing
- Guilford County Animal Services emphasized the importance of microchipping pets to ensure lost animals can be returned home
A 10-year-old pet border collie named Rio pulled off a mysterious multi-state adventure that took him roughly 1,000 miles away from home.
According to WFMY News 2, Rio slipped away from his Oklahoma home in late July. His owner, whom Guilford County Animal Services (GCAS) identified only as Melissa, shared that the dog had a history of taking off when something spooks him.
Weeks later, some 1,000 miles east of Rio’s Oklahoma home, a stray border collie landed at a shelter in Greensboro, North Carolina. When staff ran the standard microchip scan, the chip pinged that the supposed stray was Rio, a canine with an Oklahoma address, which shocked the Greensboro staffers.
Officials have no clear idea how the canine covered that much ground in a few weeks. GCAS suspects a stranger may have picked Rio up after his escape and cared for him for some time, without scanning for a chip, before he got loose a second time.
Once the shelter tracked down Rio’s owner, Melissa, to share the happy news that her dog was safe, the pet parent immediately booked a flight to Greensboro and reunited with Rio. He’s since made it back to Oklahoma, where a 9-month-old puppy was waiting for him at home.
PEOPLE reached out to Guilford County Animal Services for more information and has yet to receive a response.
GCAS stated that these situations “are the exact reason why microchipping your pet matters.” The agency pointed out that collars can slip off and animals wander much farther than their owners tend to imagine, but a microchip stays with the animal and gives shelters and veterinarians a direct line back to the pet’s family.
Every animal that leaves GCAS is chipped on the way out, and the shelter scans its animals for chips more than once during a stay. Whenever one turns up, staff said, they use whatever information is attached to steer the animal back home.
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