$$ 18 months after disappearing, the dog adopted from the rescue shows up at the front door!!

RALEIGH, NC (WNCN) – A dog adopted from a Triangle rescue facility has had a rather interesting journey after going missing for a year and a half.

Chipper got lost in May 2020. He was found last month, but that’s not the only notable part of his story.

Behind his big brown eyes, there’s a much bigger story than a little dog named Chipper.

“If I could get this dog to talk in 30 minutes,” laughs Brandi Cozart, who first fostered this dog through Triangle Beagle Rescue.

The rescue brought him in as a puppy, but he quickly found a new home with Jason Blue.

“That’s when he became ‘Chipper’ after the Atlanta Braves’ Chipper Jones,” Cozart noted.

Suzie Blue, Jason’s mother, volunteered with the rescue team, and they both love to stay in touch. No one thought Jason and Chipper’s time together would end so soon or so sadly

Blue explained: “My son passed away suddenly in February 2020.

Cozart said: ‘I remember exactly where I was when I got that phone call and tears ran down my face. “We became such good friends with adoptees because we shared that bond rather than loving the same piece of the family.”

After Jason Blue’s death, the puppy was once again adopted — with the stipulation that “Chipper was accompanied by a grandmother,” explains Cozart.

Blue, who has moved to Florida, is unable to take care of Chipper on her own but wants to stay in touch with the person who adopted the dog her son loves so much.

That did not bother Amani Qassem at all. After adopting Chipper, she stayed in touch with Blue and kept her updated on their adventures when they moved to Georgia.

But shortly after arriving in May 2020, Chipper left.

Qassem recalled: “I was really heartbroken. “I should have been the one to tell Suzie I lost Jason’s dog.”

For his part, Blue worries about Chipper’s new family. “I am heartbroken for them because I know how much they love him and care about him,” she said. “He’s just a runaway artist.”

They all did everything to try to find the lost puppy, even hiring dogs to watch, but months went by and still no trace of it.

“It was like when I knew I wouldn’t be able to help Chip again,” recalls Qassem. However, she did check social media to see if there were any posts about finding her lost dog.

In Florida, Blue never forgot the little terrier either.

“I never let my head go where he wasn’t with someone and he wasn’t safe,” she said.

However, it is not really believed that they will see Chipper again.

Then in November, Qassem was checking her email.

“I saw an email saying ‘Chipper’s microchip has been scanned.’ I was like ‘What?’ He was gone for a year and a half,” she recalls.

It’s been 538 days since he disappeared when he appeared, about 500 miles away in Florida.

Blue said: “He was in a shelter about four and a half hours away from me, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to go find him,'” Blue said. “My heart was overjoyed.”

Blue picked up Chipper from the shelter and drove him home until Qassem could drive to Florida.

When Qassem arrived, Chip ran in and hugged her, wagging his tail, without drying his eyes.

“We were both in tears,” Blue laughs, recalling.

When the news reached Cozart and Triangle Beagle Rescue, it brought about a similar reaction. “I cried again,” she said.

They will probably never know where Chipper has been for so long or how he showed up at a Florida shelter, but Blue has a theory.

“I just feel like it was all set up by my son,” she said. “He wants him to be at home and happy.”