I'll be home for Christmas
Dog returns home in time for the holidays
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“Bailey is the best Christmas present,” Pam Gibson said.
Recently reunited with her doting owner, the four-and-a-half year old black Labrador cross had been missing since October 8. Pam and her husband, Bruce, were gone on vacation when Bailey escaped from her kennel.
Since Pam, a Mission Valley Animal Shelter board member, was away from home, friends such as Brenda Jones, who works at the shelter, searched for Bailey. She reportedly looked nearly everywhere for the dog. Having seen five bears the first night Bailey was missing, Jones was very concerned that Bailey was bear bait.
When the Gibsons returned to Polson, they looked everywhere too, but finally had to give up. On Dec. 11, Pam noticed Bailey’s bed was still in the couple’s bedroom, and she was thinking she should wash the bed and get rid of it.
Then fate intervened. Bailey had been living in a yard near Turtle Lake, where someone had been feeding her for the past six weeks. She had become very protective of the man’s yard, barking and growling at visitors, so he called the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Animal Control. Animal Control took a photo of Bailey and forwarded it to the South Shore Veterinary Clinic. Although South Shore is the Gibsons’ vet, neither they nor the Gibsons recognized Bailey from the photo. Her appearance had changed drastically since she’d put on 10 pounds and had been living outside. CSKT Animal Control brought Bailey to South Shore for temporary housing. Clinic personnel checked the dog for a microchip, and via her microchip Bailey was identified as the Gibsons’ dog.
“I went charging over there with my sweater on backwards,” Pam recalled.
Bailey was in a kennel, and Pam stuck her hand through the chain links. Though a bit apprehensive at first, Bailey quickly recognized her owner.
“It was like a lightning bolt,” Pam said.
Then Pam “sat down right on the floor” and got reacquainted with her dog.
Ironically, whenever the MVAS board speaks to groups, it’s always Pam who talks about the benefit of microchipping animals.
“I’m a huge believer in microchipping,” she said.
Though she’s heard many stories through MVAS about people getting reunited with their lost animals after months or even years via microchipping, this is the first time she’s had such an experience herself.
As far as Bailey goes, “She’s been a little bit clingy,” Pam said, “But she’s my little Christmas miracle.”
