Dog Found In Long Island Zombie Home Will Be Returned To Texas Family

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- It's a happy ending two years in the making.

A hound dog discovered abused and abandoned on Long Island is about to be reunited with her family 1,700 miles away. As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported, it was technology that saved the day.

Jessie was reported missing two years ago from her East Hampton home. She had been lost or stolen by the family pet sitter.

The trail had grown cold. Until this week, when Jessie was discovered abandoned and starving in a foreclosed zombie house in Medford.

Worried neighbors alerted the Humane Guardians of Rescue who found the 7-year-old Pharaoh Hound alone and frightened. She had been eating chunks of the wallboard.

"She was left there to fend for herself, eating sheetrock, trying to get out," Dori Scofield said.

She had been in there for at least two weeks.

The rescue group and other shelters posted videos and photos. They knew the gentle dog came from a loving home.

"I recognized the collar," owner Lauren bates said.

Now living in Texas, the Bates family said they had desperately searched shelter websites for years. When they saw the video they frantically called the rescue group.

"She said, 'is she microchipped?' and I said, 'yes she is,'" Bates explained.

The scanning numbers matched and the phone call became tearful.

"The micropchip clinched it and she was just ecstatic. Then I started crying," Scofield said.

"She was hysterical. I was pretty hysterical," Bates added.

The Bates' want to solve the mystery of who took Jessie and why she was abused.

"I really hope they find the person who left her there to die," bates said.

Next Tuesday, Jessie will fly from LaGuardia to Houston to be reunited with her Texas family.