Stolen dog returned to family

Associated Press

SOUTHWEST RANCHES, Fla.

A dog found abandoned in Colorado has been returned to its family, nearly two years after it was stolen in Florida as a puppy.

Animal charity organization Wings of Rescue said the German shepherd named Cedar was covered with snow in a rural Colorado ditch, apparently malnourished with an injured leg when a deputy marshal found her. The pet was identified thanks to its microchip.

The youngest of four dogs in the Peterson family, Cedar was stolen from their backyard in May 2017 in the town of Southwest Ranches, north of Miami. At the time, other signs for missing pets were going up around the community.

Back then, Tamara Peterson told reporters that she thought someone had hopped the fence to take the 4-month-old puppy. The family posted flyers with Cedar’s photos around the town, drove around several neighborhoods and hired a detective to track the pet down.

It was not clear how the dog wound up nearly 2,000 miles away in the Colorado town of Hugo. Deputy Marshal Steve Ryan found Cedar in a ditch and picked the dog up to put it in his car.

When Ryan took the dog to a veterinarian, she scanned the pet for a microchip and found out the puppy belonged in South Florida.