SOUTHWEST RANCHES, FL — May 4, 2017, was a typical sunny Thursday in Southwest Ranches. It began like any other for the Petersons, who live about 22 miles north of downtown Miami. So when they let their four dogs into their large, 2-acre backyard, it never occurred to them one might never come back.
The Peterson’s were the proud new owners of a 4-month-old German Shepherd. At the time, Doug Peterson described the pup, Cedar, as “very gentle, very friendly.”
“The kind of puppy that would let just about anybody pick her up,” he told WSVN-TV.
But that trust ultimately may have put her in danger and altered the course of her life forever. She disappeared, vanishing into thin air that day. A distraught Peterson said he thought someone had brazenly hopped their fence and grabbed her.
“They’re pretty brave ’cause they’re risking a lot to come in someone’s yard,” he said at the time.
Police in Davie, which services Southwest Ranches, agreed. There had been a rash of pet thefts in the area lately — the Petersons’ own neighbor had her pet parrot stolen —and Sgt. Mark Leone said they believed someone had snatched the pup.
Pet theft isn’t common, but it’s more common than one might think. According to Pet Finder, as many as 2 million animals are stolen every year. They’re sold to research labs, used in fighting rings and sold in pet stores. Many dogs become breeders for puppy mills.
Frantic, the Petersons and police searched for any sign of the pooch. They hung fliers. Scoured the area. Offered a $3,000 reward. Nothing. At one point, they even hired a private investigator to find out what happened.
“We put up signs everywhere, we drove the car, we checked neighborhoods, I hired a private investigator,” Tamara Peterson told the Miami Herald.
A month went by after Cedar’s disappearance. Then another. Then many months. There wasn’t much reason for optimism — just 10 percent of stolen animals ever return.
“We were just devastated,” said Tamara Peterson.
For their children, it was a gut punch.
“Just wanna get her back, that’s all,” Doug Peterson said. “Kids are heartbroken, and you kinda get attached. They’re like a family member, you know?”
But like most pet thefts, the case went cold.
It would’ve stayed cold, too, if not for a chance sighting where no one would’ve thought to look.
We’ll forgive you if you’ve never heard of Hugo, Colorado. The tiny, agricultural town, located about 85 miles southeast of Denver, is as rural a place as you’ll see, with about 800 residents, mainly ranchers and farmers. It’s best known as the place where former President Theodore Roosevelt had his famous breakfast with cowboys in 1903 that effectively marked the “end of the day of the cowboy.”
It was here, nearly two years later and 2,000 miles away, that the case finally caught a break. Hugo was poised to become the setting for what some are calling an Easter “miracle.”
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In snowy March, a resident called the Hugo Marshal’s Office: there was a dog cold and alone in their yard. Steve Ryan, a deputy marshal with the agency, drove over to the area. Snow had recently blanketed the town, presenting a tough challenge. Ryan passed once. Nothing. Then a second time. Still nothing. Eventually, he saw it: a young German Shepherd was lying half-frozen in a ditch. Her leg was hurt. She was malnourished. She needed help.
“The dog was actually snow-covered, so I passed it twice,” Ryan told animal rescuers with the group Wings of Rescue in a Facebook Live video. “Didn’t even see it. Once we did see it, [the dog] wasn’t walking around or anything so I went up to it. She actually wouldn’t get up, so I had to pick her up and put her in my car.”
Ryan brought her back to the agency’s animal pound. For days, she was too weak to come out of her kennel. But on the fourth day, things seemed to turn.
“She actually about pulled my arm off trying to chase a rabbit, so we knew her strength was coming back,” said Jesse Schier, chief marshal at the agency.
The dog was moved to Eastern Colorado Veterinary Services in nearby Limon.
Leesa McCue, founder of the clinic, said the dog arrived in very good shape given what she’d endured. For about three weeks, the pooch rested and recovered.
“She was a little thinner than what she is now,” said McCue. “And maybe not quite so active. She has just responded so very well.”
Despite her remarkably speedy recovery, some questions remained unanswered. Among them: Where did the animal come from? How did she get here? And who did this to her?
Some of those will likely never be answered. But one answer lay embedded in her skin.
McCue’s team found a microchip implanted in the dog. This was no stray, the device revealed. Her name was Cedar. She had a family thousands of miles away in Florida. The vet called Balasky Animal Hospital in Davie and the Broward County Humane Society.
They found the Petersons, and one more call was placed.
“I immediately cried,” Tamara Peterson told The Miami Herald. “I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. It’s almost two years to the day.”
Animal rescuer Cathi Perez flew to Colorado last week. She drove Cedar seven hours to Kansas City where the dog hopped on a plane bound for balmy Ft. Lauderdale. On Saturday afternoon, she landed.
There to welcome her on the tarmac was her long-lost family. The Peterson children greeted their German Shepherd with long-overdue strokes to her chest and neck as Cedar looked around and shook her body.
At first, Tamara Peterson didn’t think the dog would remember them. After all, it had been two years and the family had just gotten the puppy when she vanished.
But Cedar appeared to recognize them. And the Petersons’ other dogs seemed to recognize their former pack-mate as well.
“She’s resting,” Tamara Peterson said. “I think she’s acclimating to the pack. I think the pack remembers her.”
Tamara Peterson credited God and the microchip for her dog’s long-awaited return. The family had prayed for Cedar to come home, and Tamara Peterson told The Herald she would absolutely call the reunification an Easter miracle.
Wings of Rescue couldn’t agree more.
“Miracles do happen,” the group wrote in a Facebook post. “Especially when you microchip your pet(s)!”
Now, the family plans a little celebration to commemorate Cedar’s homecoming.
“We’ll have a little homecoming pool party or whatever she wants,” Peterson said.