Dog reunited with Lakeland owner after five years

Too bad dogs can't talk because Cane would surely have a story to tell.

The 6-year-old mutt vanished from his owner's Lakeland yard in 2006 only to reappear a long way from home nearly five years later.

More on that in a minute.

"I thought somebody stole him," said Cane's owner Kendra Claridy.

Claridy and her partner Kayla Burton got Cane from Polk Animal Control in 2005. He came neutered, vaccinated and microchipped. They'd only had him a few months when they let him outside into their fenced backyard, and he disappeared.

"Come back, my dog was gone, literally maybe five minutes," Claridy explained.

Claridy and Burton searched for their pet, put up fliers around the neighborhood, even knocked on a neighbor's door when they saw a dog they thought might be Cane. It wasn't.

"I just never thought that I'd ever see him again. You know it's just one of those things where we just started to try to make ourselves heal from losing him," Claridy said.

Fast forward five years. Polk Animal Control, which is operated by the Polk County Sheriff's Office, gets a call about a stray dog in the Fort Socrum Village north of Lakeland on Saturday. Deputies pick up the pooch, scan him for a microchip and discover he actually belongs to someone.

"My mother got the call, and she called me," Claridy said. "Luckily I had put her as an emergency contact number because my cell phone number had changed," she said.

Claridy and Burton went down to Animal Services and finally reunited with the four-legged friend they thought they'd never see again.

"I was nervous. It was like I was meeting an old best friend you know, and I was so nervous to see him," Claridy said.

Turns out there was no need to be nervous.

"He kind of just fell right into our arms. It was good. He jumped right up to us, and he definitely knew who we were," Burton said.

The women are curious where Cane has been all this time. Did someone take him? Did someone lose him? Did someone decide they just didn't want him anymore?

"Last night I was laying with him and I'm talking to him, and I'm saying, "Buddy where have you been? What have you done? Just tell me,'" Claridy said.

"And I wish we could know, but then again I don't want to know. He's safe now."