When a Bakersfield woman saw a story we ran here on 17 News at Sunrise of a dog at our Unleash Your Love Drive, she was sure it was her father's long lost pooch. Turns out it was. Richard Jones was reunited with his dog, two months after the dog went missing.
For 14 years, Richard Jones has owned California Thrift Appliance on California Avenue. When you walk in the store, you'll receive a warm welcome from Rigo, the store greeter. But two months ago, Rigo went missing.
In July, the four-year-old pooch ran away from home after being spooked by fireworks.
"I looked and looked. Everyday I would drive around, and I was like, 'I'm going to see him coming out of someone's yard,' and it was always in the back of my mind, I'm going to find him," said Jones.
Jones did find Rigo, somewhere he never thought to check.
"I didn't know about the SPCA. I was always going down to the one on Mount Vernon," said Jones.
It all began Tuesday at the 17 News Unleash Your Love Drive. Every year, KGET teams up with the Bakersfield SPCA to find loving homes for abandoned animals. Last week, we showed video of a black and white pooch standing in a cage outside our studios.
"My daughter calls me at like 6:30 in the morning," said Jones. "She says, 'Dad, I swear we saw Rigo on TV and I DVRed it so I'm going to send it to you.' I looked at it and I go, 'that's Rigo.'"
After two months of searching with no luck, Jones was reunited with his long-lost dog at the SPCA.
"She said, 'oh he's your dog cause he just went reeereer and started crying.' I was lucky," said Jones
Lucky, or maybe it was fate.
"You know, there's just a reason that dog wasn't adopted out at our unleash your love event. That dog knew he was going back to his original home," said Chuck Nordstrom with the Bakersfield SPCA. An employee at the SPCA was set to take home Rigo the same day Richard Jones came to pick him up.
"He's part of the family," said Jones, a family that is now complete again.
