Joy as Oswestry woman's missing dog is found – six years on
When Bizkit the Parson Jack Russell went missing in Toulouse, France, his owners thought he had gone forever.
But nearly six years later he is set to be reunited with his family at their Oswestry home thanks to his microchip and some very helpful volunteers.
Paula Bennett, 48, believes Bizkit was probably taken on the last day of a trip to visit her sister in the region in May 2012.
“I was distraught,” she said. “We just got up and he was gone.
“We don’t think he would have run away, and he was all caged in.
“They’ve said to me now that they think he was taken to be bred. He doesn’t look like he’s been on the street, but he’s never been to the vet in all those years, or else they’d have seen his microchip.”
The family kept up their search for about a year, with Paula’s sister searching refuges across the country.
But the language barrier and distance made the search nearly impossible for Paula.
“It was constant – I was ringing my sister and she was going to refuge centres. Then about 12 months later we started to think there was just no chance, especially because her home is in quite a rural area.
“What do you do? It’s another country. If it was this country you could carry on. Even if people did get in touch with me, the language barrier is so hard to overcome.”
The mother-of-five had gone to Rhyl last week with her three grandchildren when she got an email with the subject ‘Your Dog’.
‘We’ve found your dog’
After so long, she waved it off as spam, but during a restless night decided to check the message.
“It was 4am in the morning and it said ‘we’ve found your dog’,” Paula said.
“I thought it was probably one of those insurance companies or something at first and left it alone.
“It felt like it was close, but I couldn’t believe it wasn’t a scam.
“I went home and showed my daughter, and it overwhelmed her. She was really upset. I didn’t know what to do, but then I had an email from Petlog saying they had found a Parson Terrier. It was Bizkit – they had found him.”
It is unclear what Bizkit has been through over the last five years.
He was found tied up in Toulouse about three weeks ago, and since then had been sent to a refuge.
He will be driven back by a relay of four English women in France who will look after him for a few days each.
“They haven’t even accepted any money”, said Paula.
Paula said without being microchipped, she would never have been reunited with Bizkit.
“There was no way on this earth we would ever have found him.”
