Colby is home.
The missing white Lab was featured in an Oct. 3 story in The Bee on tools people can use to search for lost pets. Colby's owners, Mark and Lori Ruh, talked about Web sites and other things they were doing to search for their son Jimmy's dog, who went missing from the family's east Fresno home Sept. 15.After weeks of looking, the Ruhs had no luck finding Colby.But then a Sanger man called the Ruhs on Oct. 16, saying a white Lab had wandered into his neighbor's yard and then was given to him for his son to train to hunt.At first, Lori Ruh thought, "This is just another white-dog sighting." The Ruhs had received quite a few tips that didn't pan out.But the caller explained that when he took the dog to get fixed at Kings Canyon Veterinary Hospital, workers scanned the dog for a microchip -- and the Ruhs came up as the owners.The Ruhs immediately went to pick up Colby.An emotional reunion followed. Lori Ruh surprised Jimmy after school. Colby was waiting in Jimmy's room, scratching and thumping his hind leg in excitement.Everything's been going well since Colby's return home. Lori Ruh says she's back to vacuuming white hairs again, but she doesn't mind.What has the family learned? "The chips do work," she says. "And not to give up."