Awesome Reunion Story!

Hey, AGA! Dougal here - I used to be called O'Malley when I was hanging with you guys. My forever family is the best so thanks very much for finding them for me. Before I got here, they had another golden named Pepper. He had gotten lost and they were very, very sad. They told me all about him. But GUESS WHAT??? He came home last week!! After being gone for 9 months! And he got on TV and everything. We are great friends already. Here's the story below. I just knew y'all would like it. Oh, and the most important thing to learn from this? MICROCHIPPING WORKS!

ATLANTA -- Imagine for a moment one of the mysteries of love -- the unbreakable bond between a family and its dog that is so real, their dog is part of the family. A golden retriever from Atlanta named Pepper disappeared last Christmas, turned up last week in St. Petersburg, Fla., and renewed a family's hope in miracles.

"He's in great health," said Pepper's owner, Liz Carter. If only Pepper could talk -- oh, the stories he would tell about his long and dangerous journey of hundreds of miles , beginning on December 23, 2007, near his Atlanta home, in a dog park in Buckhead.

"A firecracker went off, and he was spooked and ran," Liz said. Liz and her family searched for him for weeks -- finally giving up in heartbreak and grief. "We put up posters, we offered a reward, we wrote to every vet within a 15 mile radius." Then, last week, a stranger --Jay Getman -- suddenly called Liz from St. Petersburg, Fla.

"I asked her if she was Elizabeth and she said yes," Getman told BayNews9 of Tampa -St. Peter sburg . "And I said, "Well, I have your dog, Pepper.'"

"Utter shock ," is how Liz described her initial reaction. "My heart was pounding. I couldn't make sense, I couldn't even think what to do next." Shock gave way to amazement. In nine months, Pepper had somehow traveled from Atlanta more than 450 miles to St. Petersburg , finally showi ng up outside Jay Getman's office -- hungry, dirty , and full of fleas . Getman took Pepper to a vet, who detected Pepper's micro chip ID. Liz drove down immediately.

"He absolutely recognized me. He came strai ht over to me, put his head on my lap and just lay on the ground," she said. "I can only think that, being such a friendly dog, that he went into somebody' s car, and willingly went. That's all I can think of, I don't think he could have made that trip on his own."

Pepper first moved in with the Carters six years ago. They rescued him with help from Golden Retriever Rescue of Atlanta. "Pepper was our first - ever dog. And he just came into our hearts. And it's been so nice that he was able to be reunited with us, and it was just, it was just great ."

If only Pepper could talk, the stori es he would tell. "Yeah, I'm not sure if I want to hear all of those stori es, though," Liz said. "I think they're pretty sad." Pepper now has a sibling. The Carters recently rescued another Golden Retriever to help fill the void of Pepper's absence.And since Friday when Pepper came back home, he has slipped right back into the family routine, as if he'd never left -- like waiting at the door the instant he knows it's time for everybody to go to soccer practice.