Kameroun Mares was getting chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In 2013 she got a puppy, Husky. She named him Semper Fidelis which means “Always faithful” in Latin.
In 2016, she had to travel to California from Florida, leaving Semper in the care of her roommate. While she was out, she received a message that telling Semper had gone missing!
She searched everywhere. She continued to search even as she lived in California. She posted to the internet and continually called rescues and shelters through Florida. She hoped that someone would find Semper and have him scanned as he had a microchip.
She reached out to Ana Campos. She was a private investigator who can help her more. Campos learned something strange. Kameroun had registered Semper with AKC Reunite. Which is a service, connected to his microchip. Then she checked her AKC Reunite chip online again after a year in 2017.
She discovered that a woman has added her name to Semper’s chip.
They realized that the other microchip company didn’t bother to check to see whether Semper’s chip had an owner already registered. Campos dug further and found that someone had listed Semper on Craigslist for $200. That is the reason why Kameroun never found him as he had been “flipped”.
They finally understood that it was Kameron’s roommate who sold Semper!
“She was told he was lost on April 30, 2016. But on April 11, 2016, the buyer added their name to his AKC Reunite ‘registered chip’. They registered this registered chip on Petkey pets instead. Petkey pets did not bother to see if he was chipped already.” She wrote on Facebook.
After a lawyer was retained a judge ruled in Kameroun’s favor and Semper was retrieved from the person who bought him. Finally, he was returned to Kameroun.
After 2.5 years of searching and hoping to find him, she reunited with her lovely dog. It was a blessing that even he remember all the commands she taught him!
