Dog that went missing eight years ago near Fresno found in rural Stanislaus County
When Carolina Trujillo’s miniature poodle disappeared from her home in Kerman, west of Fresno, in 2103, she papered the neighborhood with lost pet fliers, went door to door talking to neighbors and listed him as missing in a database for pet microchips.
Months passed without word of the 1-year-old puppy named Mr. J, and Trujillo eventually gave up hope of ever finding him.
But last week Trujillo got an unexpected phone call from Modesto. An employee at the Stanislaus Animal Services Agency said a white poodle registered to her had been brought in as a stray. Someone had found Mr. J wandering around a rural street near Crows Landing and Fulkerth roads, about nine miles east of Turlock.
“I was amazed; I couldn’t believe it,” Trujillo said. She wanted to leave the moment she got the phone call but had to finish work before making the drive to Modesto from Fresno, where she and her three sons now live.
The agency posted a photo on Facebook of Trujillo and Mr. J’s reunion with a caption that read, “THANK YOU to the microchip as microchips work!! Lots of joy was witnessed here.”
Mr. J in 2013
Trujillo adopted Mr. J from the SPCA when he was about eight months old. The family had just lost a dog that was hit by a car and her oldest son Leonardo, who was then 11, was having a particularly difficult time. Leonardo picked out the white poodle and her middle son Agustin named him Jordan after his then-best friend but they always just called him Mr. J.
Losing him not long after their last dog was too painful, Trujillo said, so the family didn’t get another pet until this year when they got both a dog and a cat.
On the day Mr. J disappeared, Trujillo had let him out in the yard to go to do his “potty business.” When she came out to let him in about ten minutes later, he was gone.
Trujillo believes someone stole him because there were no holes in the fence or any way she could see that he would have been able to get out. Her home at that time was surrounded by a 4-foot tall chain-link fence that someone could have reached over.
She suspected someone thought they could make money by breeding Mr. J, not knowing that he’d been neutered.
Wherever he’s been the past eight years, Trujillo said, “I hope he had a good house and someone who appreciated him for the good dog he is because he is super sweet.”
‘Never lose hope’
When Trujillo picked up Mr. J on Oct. 18 she used FaceTime to call Leonardo, who is now a 19-year-old Marine stationed in Missouri.
Leonardo was as shocked as his mom. Mr. J was a bit worse for wear and didn’t much resemble the fluffy white puppy they knew eight years ago.
Animal Control staff estimated he’d been on the streets at least three months. His fur was matted, his nails overgrown and his teeth were infected. But his loving, gentle temperament was the same as always, Trujillo said.
She brought him home, took him to a groomer and to a vet, who prescribed antibiotics for his teeth.
Mr. J very quickly settled back in with the family, making friends with their other dog and trying to warm up to the cat, who remains a little leery of him, Trujillo said.
She said bringing Mr. J home after all these years was the best thing to happen to her family this year.
“Never lose hope that your little one is going to come back,” she said. “Be ready for that ... and always have open arms.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
