A lost dog, 1,500 miles from home, finds a network of helpers from KC to El Cajon

It’s a mystery how a dog named Topper got from his home near San Diego to Kansas City.

But in July, several months after the Bernese Mountain Dog went missing in southern California, the KC Pet Project was able to track down his grateful owner.

And thanks to a Pony Express-style chain of cross country volunteers, Topper is back where he belongs.

“We have no clue how he ended up here (in Kansas City),” said Tori Fugate of the KC Pet Project.

In July, Topper was brought into the city shelter after a Kansas City police officer suffered a “minor bite” during an arrest.

Luckily, Topper had a microchip implanted, and KC Pet Project staff got the contact information for his owner, Tom Huffman of El Cajon, Calif.

Huffman’s mother, Roderica Huffman, said Tuesday that the family thought they would never see Topper again.

They thought a man they had hired to work on a car had taken Topper while a friend was watching him.

“Then out of the blue, my son got the call,” she said. “It was just remarkable.”

But Tom Huffman didn’t have the money to travel to Kansas City to get Topper.

That’s when the folks at the Pet Project lined up a cross-country network of volunteers who each drove about 200 miles as they relayed Topper from Missouri to California.

Altogether, Topper made 19 stops across six states, including a flight from Phoenix to Riverside County, Calif., where a final set of drivers brought Topper back to Huffman’s home in El Cajon on Sunday.

“We are so thankful for all of those amazing, generous, wonderful people,” said Roderica Huffman.