California dog missing since the summer is found in Michigan

DETROIT — A dog missing in California since the summer turned up more than 2,000 miles away in suburban Detroit.

Police in Harper Woods responded to a call about a stray dog last week, picked up the terrier mix and contacted an animal welfare group.

The Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society said it quickly discovered that the dog, named Mishka, had an identity chip implanted in her with information about her owners.

Mehrad Houman and his family live in San Diego but were planning to travel to Minnesota when the call came in. He landed there and then drove 10 hours to Michigan for a reunion with Mishka, the adoption group said on a Facebook post with pictures and video.

“This is a tale that Hollywood would love to tell,” the group said.

Mishka had wandered away from Houman’s workplace, an auto garage, in July and never returned. Her collar had the family’s phone number.

“We think it was stolen and then it was sold and ended up in Michigan,” said Corinne Martin, director of the animal welfare group.

Houman’s wife, Elizabeth, said it’s “been an incredible journey.”

“I never gave up,” she said Thursday. “I put up over a thousand fliers. I had a flier on my back windshield. I wore her leash whenever I would look for her. … Now I just want to find out how she got to Michigan.”

Veterinarian Nancy Pillsbury examined 3-year-old Mishka, gave her a rabies shot and cleared her to travel home to California.

“She was clean, well-fed. Whoever had her took good care of her,” Pillsbury told The Associated Press. “How she got here — that’s a story only Mishka knows.”