Seven months after disappearing from her yard in Colorado, a little rat terrier named Daisy walked into the arms of Tracie Crass in Knoxville, some 1,300 miles away, and got an airplane ride home.
"The kindness of people gives you a reason to believe," said Daisy's owner Vonda Lundstrom of Aurora, Colo. "It's the best Christmas present."
Crass spotted 2-year-old Daisy wandering down her sidewalk on Christmas night. She assumed the 12-pound dog had slipped out of its home amid holiday festivities. So she brought the pooch on her porch and waited for its owner to come looking for it.
When no one showed up by the next day, Crass telephoned the number on Daisy's rabies tag. She reached Lundstrom's veterinarian, who reached Lundstrom.
A cell phone photograph of Daisy sent to Crass confirmed it was the same little dog who dug a hole under the privacy fence at Lundstrom's home in April and disappeared.
With help from Knoxville's Young-Williams Animal Center, Daisy flew home on Wednesday.
The reunion at Denver International Airport was memorable.
"She licked me. She loved on me," Lundstrom said. "I have my baby back, that's for sure."
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