June 17, 2006
By Karen Kucher
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
ENCINITAS – After four years, Alex the boxer is finally home.
A beloved pet that had been missing since March 2002 was reunited with her Encinitas owners yesterday after workers at the county's central shelter in San Diego found a microchip under the dog's fur.
The boxer had been taken to the shelter by its owner the last three years. When shelter employees found the microchip containing information about the original owner, they called the family late Thursday.
Early yesterday morning, Lisa Najjar and two of her three daughters, Monica and Jaclyn, picked up their dog.
“Alex went straight from the shelter to the vet and then to get a bath,” Najjar said. “We are just really, really happy. She looks good. She looks healthy. She's in good condition, and we're thrilled to have her back.”
“It kind of feels like she hasn't been gone, in a way.”
Shelter workers routinely scan animals brought in for microchips, using an identification system that stores information about a pet's owner in a database.
“They were just shocked,” said Dave Johnson, animal medical operations manager with the county's Animal Services Department. “The dog's been gone for four years.”
The dog turned up missing from the family's fenced backyard back in 2002, Lisa Najjar said. The Najjars looked for her for weeks at local veterinarian offices, pet stores and shelters. The family suspected the purebred dog may have been stolen.
For the last three years, Alex had been living with Mission Hills resident Justin Howe. He took the boxer to the animal shelter after being told by his landlord that he couldn't have a dog, Howe said.
He had gotten the boxer, which he called Roxie, from an Escondido man three years ago and had no idea someone was looking for her, he said.
Giving her up had been painful.
“I cried the whole day,” Howe said. “I didn't want to give her up. I loved her. I'm really happy that (the Najjars) found her. I was afraid she would be put to sleep.”
Much has changed in the years since Alex turned up missing.
The three Najjar daughters have become teenagers. Jaclyn, 18, graduated from high school yesterday, just hours after the family picked up Alex.
“I think she remembers us. She is really open , and she seems like the exact same dog,” said Monica, 15. Alex also will have to get used to a new house. In the years she was gone, the family moved from Olivenhain to Cardiff.
“We got her as a puppy for Christmas and had her microchipped right away,” Lisa Najjar said. “Thank God that we did.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20060617-9999-1mi17doggie.html