Vanessa Ayala was in disbelief when she heard that her beloved Pit Bull Rosey had been found. Five years ago, Rosey went missing after Ayala’s ex-husband was in a car accident in North Carolina and Rosey ran away.
Ayala had given up hope so she never thought to hear from Melissa Banks, telling her she had found her dog. Banks, who has a pit bull of her own, had seen Rosey living in the woods around Cedar Point in North Carolina.
“I was driving down 58 and I see her in the field,” Banks told News Channel 12. “I didn’t see her for a long time, and then I saw her again and it was like January, ‘Oh my gosh that same dog is in the field.'” By that time, Banks realized that Rosey had been “pretty much alone and has been fending for herself.”
Banks reached out to Donna Bourget, who is the founder of “You Will Be Found Lost Dogs”, to help her try to catch and trap Rosey. What followed was six months of effort using trail cams and different kinds of traps. Bourget says that she’s caught dogs in as little as four hours. But not Rosey. Rosey was very smart.
“We tried everything. Every trap we did, Rosey would not go in it,” Bourget said, “We did steaks, we did roasted chicken, we did bones, we did everything. She would go in halfway, and back out halfway. She was actually the toughest case I ever had.”
When they finally caught Rosey, her microchip was not registered. But Bourget refused to give up and she found where the chip was implanted. Bourget, who has found over 350 dogs, tracked down Ayala.
Ayala said, “I was so shocked because I was praying that she was at least being taken care of because I never thought that I was going to get her back after all this time. I just wanted to make sure somebody was taking care of her and loving her.”
But now the two are reunited. And Rosey instantly recognized her mom. She told ABC Action News, “As soon as I came in through the door, she immediately recognized me and started jumping all over me.”
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