'I was shaking': Owner of Bowie the stolen cavoodle on their emotional reunion

Manukau Animal Shelter is reminding people about the importance of microchipping pets after a stolen dog was reunited with her family.

Bowie the cavoodle was located after following a family home on the streets of south Auckland, exactly three months after the pup was stolen in April. The dog was taken from outside a Burgerfuel in New Lynn.

The brazen theft was captured on CCTV - and since then, Jo Hodge and her family have spent every day searching for the pup.

But while driving back from a potential sighting in Titirangi on Wednesday, Ms Hodge got a call from the animal shelter.

"I said, 'Are you sure, have you scanned her microchip?' and they said, 'Yes, it's definitely Bowie' and then I just pulled over and had a really good cry."

After wiping away her tears, she wasted no time getting to the shelter.

"I put the address into Google Maps on my phone, and it said 30 minutes and I thought, 'Grrr 30 minutes is such a long time!'"

The hardest part was keeping it a secret from her two kids, Huxley and Lyla.

"Our dad was on the phone, and he was like, 'Oh my God!' and we were like, 'What?' and after he finished he said, 'Mummy just saw a cupcake stand on the side of the road'."

But Jo Hodge says what was on the other end of the phone was something much sweeter.

"I was shaking when I got there, because I was like three months and it's actually going to happen!"

Manukau Animal Shelter team leader Zarene Gerbich says her team were just as excited.

"Every car that was coming in was being watched, but we knew that it was Jo because she got out of the car and ran across the car park!"

And through the front doors, there was the Hodges' nine-month-old cavoodle - still the same, just a bit bigger and a bit hairier.

"She's been looked after, and we just think that she has ended up with someone that didn't know that she was stolen."

The Manukau Animal Shelter says had it not been for Bowie's microchip, she might never have been reunited with her family. 

Ms Gerbich says the case proves just how important it is to register and microchip your dogs.

"Because people contact the council shelters regardless of where they are in the country, and we can search these places to make sure that the dogs are reunited with their owners."

Like the Hodges, who are all over the moon - apart from one member of the family. 

"Yeah, the cat's not thrilled," admitted Ms Hodge.

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