WICHITA, Kansas -- After five and a half long years, a Wichita woman is just days away from reuniting with her two Bassett Hounds.
All the pieces of the puzzle came together to make a family complete.
"Sad eyes, long ears...they're just adorable," says Brenda Travis, explaining why she loves Bassett Hounds.
Nearly ten years ago Brenda adopted a puppy Bassett.
Huge Alabama fans - the pup was named 'Bama.
Brenda knew 'Bama was lonely for a playmate, so they adopted another Bassett and named her Allie.
But one afternoon Brenda returned home from a trip out to find her dogs had been stolen.
"It was just like a death in the family. We had had them for four years and they were just our babies so it was devastating," remembers Brenda.
She checked with animal shelters and vets for months, and frequently drove around looking for them, but her Bassett babies didn't return.
Eventually Brenda and her family moved here to Wichita to make their home.
Brenda says during that time she pretty much gave up hope of ever finding her dogs again - until she got a phone call.
"She said, 'Do you have Bassett Hounds?' and I said we used to, but they were stolen 5 years ago and she said, 'I have both of them right here,'" explains Brenda.
A man found the pair of Bassetts alongside a highway and took them to an animal shelter in Dallas, Georgia.
The shelter used Bama's microchip to find Brenda.
"It's really amazing they stuck together through all this, wherever they have been," says Brenda.
Volunteers are driving the dogs from Georgia to St. Louis, Missouri.
And Brenda's family plans to meet them there.
"We loved 'em a lot, anytime we look at the pictures it just makes me cry so to see they're alive and healthy," says Brenda.
It will be a very happy family reunion.
"Let's call it the Sweet Home Allie-Bama."
It's going to be another happy reunion when Allie and Bama get to Wichita.
They'll meet a tiny little Yorkie as well as a Goldendoodle and a Golden Retriever all that Brenda adopted during the past five years.
