A Golden Retriever who slipped away from his yard in St. Louis more than six and a half years ago has now been reunited with his original owners after living in several different cities across Missouri.
The dog was known as Cujo when – at 7 years old – he escaped from his owners’ yard in July 2000. He ended up 120 miles away in Columbia, Missouri, in the home of an elderly woman.
When the woman entered a nursing home, the dog was sent to the Central Missouri Humane Society where Bob Tillay, president of Dirk’s Fund, a Golden Retriever rescue group, happened to spot the dog – who had been renamed Willy – on a dog adoption website.
Tillay arranged to have Willy transferred to St. Louis, where the dog was taken to serve as a pet for the elderly in a nursing home. Things there didn’t work out, so his picture went up on the Dirk’s Fund website.
In mid-January, Michael Barczewski, the brother-in-law of Noreen Barczewski – one of Cujo’s original owners – was looking for a dog when he visited the Dirk’s Fund website.
Michael and his wife, Gail, had been Cujo’s original breeders and he recognized the dog immediately. The dog, now 13, was reunited with the Barczewskis on Jan 26.
For more information on Dirk’s Fund, visit http://www.dirksfund.com