Chihuahua–Dachshund mix Corbin might have small legs, but he sure made it a long way from home in record time after escaping from his Killeen, Texas, yard March 25.
“It sounds like one of those too good to be true stories,” Corbin’s owner Mike Saiz tells The Cincinnati Enquirer. “This isn’t the first time he dug a hole under the fence. One time he was waiting for us on our front porch and the other two times we had to pick him up from the local pound.”
But this time, little Corbin is making national headlines after he was found only three days later in Hamilton, Ohio, more than 1,100 miles away from home.
No one knows exactly how Corbin made the long journey north, but a surveillance camera captured a woman tying Corbin up to a bench outside of the Animal Friends Humane Society in Hamilton the evening of March 28. Shelter staff found Corbin in that same spot the following morning, the little dog shaking and soaked through with rain.
Animal Friends Humane Society’s Meg Stephenson says the Butler County Sheriff’s Office is now searching for the woman who abandoned Corbin outside overnight.
“When you leave an animal outside the shelter, not only are you exposing it to the elements, it is also likely a missed opportunity to ID it,” Stephenson explains.
The woman who left Corbin outside of the shelter apparently left a small cardboard box for him to curl up under, but with that night’s thunderstorms, the box “turned to melted mush,” explains Deputy Kurt Merbs.
“That’s what infuriates us,” Merbs says. “There was no reason to tie it up and leave it. Obviously, we’re not open at midnight, and the hours are posted right on the door.”
The Sheriff’s Office is also hoping the mystery woman can provide insight on just how the little Chihuahua-Doxie mix made it so far from his Texas home. They are asking anyone with information to contact the Dog Warden Division immediately.
Stephenson tells Local 12 WKRC-TV Cincinnati that if it weren’t for Corbin’s microchip, which shelter staff scanned after bringing Corbin inside out of the rain, Corbin’s worried owners might never have been found. She did admit that the Saiz family was very confused when she called them to give them the good news that Corbin was safe and well.
“When we told them the landmarks of our area to find our location they didn’t know where any of those were and then stated we’re actually in our hometown in Texas and that’s when our staff said we’re in Hamilton, Ohio,” Stephenson tells ABC 22.
“They called my wife and she told me that they found our dog, but she didn’t sound happy about it. I asked if he was OK and she told me he was fine. I then asked where the shelter was and she said, ‘Hamilton — not Hamilton, Texas, but Hamilton, Ohio,” Saiz remembers, describing the shock he and his wife Sharlette felt receiving that long distance phone call about Corbin.
“We’ve never been close to Ohio. Then it became a head-scratcher of how to get him home,” Saiz tells the Houston Chronicle.
Mike and Sharlette didn’t know how they’d make the cross-country trip to bring Corbin back to Killeen, so the couple turned to social media to ask for help — and boy did they ever get a response. People from all over the country offered to pitch in and drive Corbin from Ohio to Texas.
Finally, Saiz says he and his family got in touch with another Killeen resident who coincidentally had been Ohio that same week for her mother’s funeral. The kind volunteer offered to let Corbin join her on her drive back to Killeen.
“The outpouring of support is unbelievable. So many people were willing to help,” Saiz says. “We are just amazed about the whole situation and that he is heading home right now.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Corbin was still homeward bound; he was last spotted somewhere in Arkansas and is expected to arrive home any minute.
Sources: Houston Chronicle, ABC 22, Local 12 WKRC-TV Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Enquirer
