Adventures of Kimba: Dog found after 5 years

A South Miami-Dade family was reunited with its beloved dog five years after she went missing.

BY EVAN S. BENN
ebenn@MiamiHerald.com

She was covered in filth, and an infection left a cloudy film over her big brown eyes, but Kimba knew right away her days on the streets had ended.

''She came over to me and started licking me and smelling me,'' Alberto Saavedra, 36, said Wednesday night. ``She recognized me. I think she wanted to go home.''

Kimba, an 8-year-old German shepherd, was reunited with her owners Wednesday -- five years after she had wandered away from the family's South Miami-Dade home.

Someone had taken her as a stray to the Miami-Dade Animal Services shelter in Medley. County employees located a microchip in Kimba's neck and contacted her family.

Saavedra and his wife, Adriana, bought Kimba from a pet store as a puppy. At the time, they didn't have kids and wanted a pet for protection and companionship.

Kimba ran away a few years later when she was 3, shortly after the couple had twin boys and moved from Kendall to High Pines, near South Miami. As workers came in and out of the Saavedras' new home, one left the yard gate open, and Kimba escaped.

''We looked and looked for her, but after a long time, we just figured we'd never see her again,'' Saavedra said.

The family tried to move on without her -- even buying a golden retriever, Sheeba -- but found themselves frequently talking about their lost dog and thinking of her whenever they saw photographs of German shepherds.

''That was their dog,'' said Ana Abbade, Adriana's mother. ``They talked about her all the time.''

So they were certainly surprised Wednesday to get a call from animal shelter employees saying they had found the dog.

''I couldn't believe them,'' Saavedra said. 'I said, `What do you mean? That couldn't be.' ''

But it was for real. A tiny microchip about the size of a grain of rice had been implanted under Kimba's skin as a puppy. Using a hand-held scanner, shelter employees found the microchip and were able to pull up contact information for the Saavedras.

''It's amazing they could be reunited after this long,'' said Aileen Sanchez, a community outreach coordinator for Animal Services. ``Everyone here came out to watch when the family came to get her.''

When Kimba went missing five years ago, someone likely picked her up, never reported her found, then abandoned her after a while. Shelter workers estimated she had been living on the streets for at least a month.

Kimba got a bath Wednesday and some medication for infections in her eyes and ears.

Today, the Saavedras plan to take her to their veterinarian for a complete checkup. They haven't let her interact yet with Sheeba.

''We want her to get used to being back here before we introduce the two of them,'' Saavedra said.

Kimba already seemed reacclimated to home life Wednesday -- she followed twins Victor and Eric, 7, around the house and came trotting along when Saavedra called her name.

Having a semi-new member of the family will take some getting used to, Saavedra said, but that's fine, he said.

''For her, we always had room for one more,'' Saavedra said.

It wasn't a "we have to get them all done right now" type thing - we just did it when each pet went in for checkups and such.