How did Lilly, a nine-year-old Shih Tzu from Denver, Colorado, get to Elgin, Illinois? Well, this is the question dog owner Kelly Booker and volunteers from the Chicago-area animal organization Almost Home Foundation are asking today. The good news is that after almost 4 years missing from her home, Lilly is getting ready to go back where she belongs.
Booker told Chicago’s WGN that Lilly got lost July 4, 2011. She wasn’t sure if the dog was stolen from her back yard or if the pet simply got spooked by fireworks and ran away, but Lilly went missing and Booker was unable to find her.
With all hope lost, Booker never imagined that four years later a rescue organization more than 1,000 miles away would call her to say Lily was alive, but it happened, and now the pet owner is making plans to reunite with her dog.
Lilly was picked up by Elgin police in April and taken to a Schaumburg, Ill., shelter. The dog’s hair was matted and she suffered from an ear infection, but after volunteers from Almost Home Foundation cared for the pet, the little white fluff ball began to feel better.
Thanks to a microchip, Lilly was identified and her owner contacted. Now the pet owner is making plans to travel to the Windy City and reunite with her dog.
Many animal lovers traveling to Denver in the coming weeks have volunteered to take Lilly home, but Booker and Almost Home Foundation have yet to finalized the logistics of the happy reunion.
