CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Corpus Christi family has been reunited with its four-legged friend after their 9-year-old pup managed to run off.
What began as another call to save a dog would lead to a startling discovery at Denali Drive and North Oso Parkway on the South Side of Corpus Christi.
That's where they found a dog in distress in the canal.
"So we received a call for a dog in a canal that had been in the canal for a couple of hours swimming and it was unable to get out of the canal on its own,” Vanessa Scarbrough of Corpus Christi Animal Care Services told us.
That's when Officer Aguilar raced to the scene and found the dog. When the officer used his snare pole to rescue the dog, she didn’t fight back, leading him to believe she wanted to be rescued.
"It's body temperature was low since it had been in the water for so long,” said Scarbrough.
Then, the officer rushed the dog back to Corpus Christi Animal Care Services.
“They assessed her and they immediately started to wrap her up in blankets,” Scarbrough told us.
The lead vet tech then used heat dryers to bring the pup’s temperature back to normal. Then, they'd realize the reason why the dog wound up in the canal in the first place.
"It is an elderly dog that has hearing issues and some sight issues so it probably just stumbled into the canal while it was wandering around,” Scarbrough said.
But the best news of all? The dog was microchipped and gave them the information they needed to have a happy reunion with the dog’s human family and also found out her name is Jasmine.
Although her family did its best to find her, it kept running into dead ends.
"It is so important to have that microchip,” Mia Burbage of Corpus Christi Animal Care Services said. “The microchip allows us to find the owner immediately just like we did for this dog. We are so excited when we're able to find the owner for the animal and the animal can get the help that it needs,”
Jasmine's owners respectfully declined an on-camera interview.
Meantime, Corpus Christi Animal Care Services said this is the perfect example of why everyone should microchip their pet.
