NORTHUMBERLAND, Pa. — John Becker has been a learning support teacher at Shikellamy Middle School in Northumberland for six years. Earlier this week, he and his students spent some time outside.
"We were just getting ready to call the kids in, and I felt something jump up on the back of my leg," Becker said.
It was a dog, a small poodle mix.
"I just figured it was a neighborhood dog, a stray dog. It wasn't the first time we had a dog running through the school grounds here," Becker said.
Becker called the 570 phone number on the dog's collar, but no one answered. So school nurse Michele Culp took the dog to the Sunbury Animal Hospital to see if he was microchipped. That's when these two got a big surprise.
"The lady scanned him, and she said, 'Oh, he's from New York!' And they called the lady who is the rightful owner, and she said he's been missing for six years," Culp said.
That's right. Milo has been missing from his owner in New York state since 2016.
"The story I heard was that she had someone watch Milo while she was giving birth or in labor and when she returned, she found that her dog was missing," Becker said.
This story has a happy ending for Milo and his owner in New York: They will be reunited this weekend.
"I can't imagine my dog going missing, and if that ever were to happen, I could just hope that the same thing would happen to me, that I could be reunited. So it makes me happy," Becker said.
"Here we are, a little town in Northumberland, finding a dog from New York. It makes you feel really good that you're able to help somebody reunite after all these years," Culp said.
State police are investigating how Milo ended up in central Pennsylvania.
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