There would be no more magic Disney moments for Matt and Melissa Coffin. You know, the one where Lassie or Benji, or in this case Nash, comes tail-wagging home after months of surviving the elements.
Nash, the mixed chow who dug himself out of his Virginia Beach back yard a couple of Thanksgivings ago, is still missing.
"We're beyond thinking he'll come back," Matt Coffin said Friday.
There was a brief period last May when the Coffins thought they had finally found their pet.
A big black dog was seen sniffing around a house in Norfolk and turned over to Animal Control by a newspaper employee. She later recalled seeing a classified ad about Nash and phoned to alert the Coffins.
They rushed down to the shelter and rescued him from the pound, certain it was their dog. But when a story ran in The Virginian-Pilot about their good fortune, a Norfolk family called to claim the chow was their missing dog, Rex.
He also had slipped under his backyard fence, but it was a few blocks from where this dog had been found, not the 15 miles from the Coffin house in Kempsville. He, too, was a treasured pet.
The dogs had similar markings and equally sweet personalities. There were clues, though, that something was amiss.
This dog was 10 pounds heavier than 7-year-old Nash, and gaining weight is rare for a runaway living off the land.
After they got him home, Matt Coffin said, the dog started doing stuff that "wasn't really normal" for Nash.
Still, they weren't sure. It could have been the result of five months of being on the lam, they thought.
It was left to forensic science to decide the custody battle.
Nash had once contracted Lyme disease, a tick-borne ailment that would have shown up in a blood test. The dog the Coffins had taken home was tested and did not show signs of ever having Lyme. Convinced he wasn't theirs, they gave Rex back to his owners.
They still miss Nash, who was known to bolt every now and then but always came back eventually, Matt Coffin said.
"He was a personable, friendly dog," he said. "We always figured somebody has him or he was hit by a car."
They still have their other dog, a golden retriever named Cole, and are taking no chances with her. "We did get her microchipped ASAP," Matt Coffin said.
Tony Germanotta, (757) 446-2377, tony.germanotta@pilotonline.com
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