Love a happy ending...the story of Tammy and Graduation

Yesterday was Natalie's first day of swim class. Afterward, we got some breakfast and ran some errands. We got home and I was talking to my SIL for quite a while when I walked into my bedroom, looked out my window and saw a dog in my backyard....in my FENCED in backyard! I was shocked. I walked out and called at it and quickly discovered it was elderly....she never looked at me the entire time I was calling or whistling. I called the vet office thinking they could scan her for a microchip. I told them I found a dog in my backyard when the vet tech cut me off and asked if it was an old beagle with Florida tags. I was so thrilled! Yes she was!....I was thinking someone must have called and reported their dog missing. The vet tech told me to come on down and they'll scan her....which had me a little confused.
When I got to the vet office the ladies told me that a man had stopped in their office, told them that he and another lady had found a beagle roaming along the road. The decided to put it in someone's backyard....and then he left. The vet office had no idea where this dog was to even help find an owner. The ladies scanned the beagle for a microchip without luck. I brought the dog home and decided I would call Polk County, Florida since that is where the dog's rabies vaccination was from. I was going to wait until Monday since I figured the office was closed on Saturday. In the mean time, I decided to give the dog a bath since she was so muddy and wet. I decided to get on the internet anyhow and found a phone number for Polk County Animal Control. I called it....they were open! I asked the lady, Mary, if I gave her the numbers on the dog license if she could find the owners. She sure could! So I gave the numbers to her and she said the owners were from Lakeland, FL. She asked if the dog looked about 15 (Oh yes!) and her name was Tammy. She told me she'd call them and call me right back. Now, I live up in Michigan so I figured someone was visiting their family or back here for the Summer. Mary calls me back only to tell me the phone number had been disconnected. Ugh! Another road block! She then told me to hold on and came back with the owners name and address. My first plan was to see if there was anyone in this area with the same last name because maybe the owners were visiting relatives. Plan B would be to send a letter down to Florida. I looked in my phone book only to find an exact match for the owner's name AND they lived in the subdivision behind me. I called the number and a lady answered the phone. I told her I found her dog and I could bring her back home. It was so exciting! The owner was a 94 year old woman and she was worried sick about her dog. She told me that she was so afraid that was the end of her dog. I told her that I called Polk County in florida and Mary was the one who was able to give me a name to reunite them. The 94 year old lady told me that they no longer live in Florida. She was more than grateful for her dog's safe return and I was SO thrilled to have reunited them!
This is 15 year old Tammy.


After delivering Tammy to her owner, we had to hurry and come home to finish getting ready for Natalie's Preschool Graduation Celebration. Natalie kept telling me I was going to cry....she was right. I did a little bit. It was such a wonderful show. They had the Butterfly room perform and then took those kids backstage to put on caps. Later, they came out as their names were called to grab a "diploma" and then all stood in line. All the kids looked adorable! I took a ton of pics but all of them have other kids from KiddieU in them so I won't post those....I took this one when we got home.