When Jourdyn Koziak got a call last week from a man who claimed that her long-lost dog had been found, she thought he was playing a sick prank. That’s because her beloved pit bull Forty-Cal had been missing for 11 years. Then the staff at Animal Care and Control Team (ACCT) in Philadelphia sent her some photos of the pooch. “Immediately, I could remember his markings from a mile away,” said Koziak. She hadn’t seen Forty-Cal since he disappeared with her family’s second dog from the backyard of her former home in Philly. The other dog turned up not long after, but Forty-Cal never returned. Koziak has always suspected that he was stolen from the yard. In the meantime, Koziak had gotten married, had a child, and moved to Luzerne County, about 100 miles away. Still, she never stopped updating Forty-Cal’s microchip with her information. It turns out that a little girl in Philadelphia found the dog. She took him into her house and her parents made him some hot dogs, but they couldn’t keep him because they have another pet. They wound up calling animal control. ACCT Philly scanned the chip, and the rest is history. Shelter staff warned Koziak that the dog might be overwhelmed at first and it could take him a while to recognize his old family, so they approached him cautiously. "We put our hands out, he sniffed us, and then proceeded to pull us toward the door, like, 'Let's go,'” said Koziak. She says Forty-Cal was sick and sleepy the first day, but now he’s back to his normal self and seems happy.
