Florida dog who made mysterious 1,500 mile trek is heading home

A dog who somehow traveled 1,500 miles from Florida to Salem, New Hampshire, is now heading back home. Cooper the dog is making the trek down to Naples, Florida, with the help of dozens of volunteers. Cooper disappeared from his back yard nine months ago. "I've received several strays here in Salem, but I've never had one come from that far," said Corie Bliss, Salem animal control officer.

He showed up in Salem a week and a half ago, but how he got there remains a mystery. Cooper had no collar, but he had a microchip, which enabled police to track down the owner. The dog's owner Julie Shields says, "Somebody called me and said he was in New Hampshire. I said, 'you know I'm in Florida, right?' 'Yeah, we know everything about you. We found this microchip on your dog.'" Most of Cooper's life has been a mystery. The dog showed up on Shields' doorstep in Naples, Florida, a year and a half ago.
"I advertised him wherever I could think of - signs, Craigslist, that kind of stuff, nobody ever claimed him," said Shields. She decided to keep him and got him microchipped, a move that paid off when he left in May. No one is sure how Cooper got to New Hampshire, but Bliss said it's unlikely he walked. "He's in really good shape," said Barbara Hanson of Kindred Hearts Transport. "He looks like he's been well taken care of, so he's been with someone."

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Hanson is one of 30 people who have volunteered to get Cooper home. She planned to drive the first leg before handing Cooper off to another driver in Massachusetts. Hanson said transporting animals is the most rewarding part of her job. "You get to interact with the dogs, get them out of being caged up or being lost," she said. Bliss said Cooper loves to ride in the car, and that's good, because the 1,500-mile journey will take three days. While she will miss him, she said this is why she does her job. "Cooper is going home," she said.