When Kobe escaped from his Springfield, Va. yard, and a car pulled over, grabbed him up, and sped off, Donald and Jeannine Smith were heartbroken. They thought their sweet shi-tzu/Maltese mix had been stolen! Hit particularly hard by the loss, though, was Miranda, the couple’s 23-year-old daughter, who has Down Syndrome.
The police were called. Flyers were printed. And the family headed to their local Petsmart to post the latter and ask employees to be on the lookout, but a happy twist of fate was in store.
At precisely the same moment the Smiths were in the store, a local Good Samaritan — a high school teacher who lives nearby the Smiths — showed up with Kobe in arms, with intent to have PetSmart scan him for a microchip in hopes of finding his owners. He had seen the dog loose in the street but didn’t realize it had only escaped from the yard adjacent.
“It was a happy-ever-after moment like you’ve never seen before,” family member Lucia Warren told DC-area news outlet Fox5.
“He’s my buddy,” said Miranda, clearly happy and relieved. “We’ve got him now.”
