Family reunited with dog 3+ years after it went missing

KATY, Texas – A Katy family is celebrating the return of its long-lost pet after 3 1/2 years.

Beau, a now 5-year-old Rhodesian ridgeback mix, disappeared in March 2014.

"The back fence had been blown open and he got out," owner Michael LaBounty said.

The family was devastated and used flyers and social media to spread the word about the missing pup, but to no avail.

It turns out Beau was 12 miles away, splitting his time between a subdivision off Peek Road and the construction sites of a new junior high and high school.

"The workers would just leave their food on the ground so he would have something to eat they were watching out for him," trapper Polly Wark said.

Wark and other animal rescuers had tried and failed to catch Beau in the past.

On Monday night, they tried again with a new plan that worked.

"We commandeered him into this one area that we had completely roped off (and) kept him in there. That's where he was darted," Wark said.

After checking him for a microchip and getting a match, they called the LaBounty family.

"She says, 'We have your dog we would like to bring him to you right now,'" LaBounty recalled.

The family says its story is a reminder to everyone to have microchips implanted in your dogs.

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