A North Suffolk family, who had searched for a family pet for two weeks following a home burglary, has posted a comment on the Web announcing very good news.

WE FOUND BUSTER! The girls got a call late this afternoon that someone spotted him over in the Northgate Industrial Park off Nansemond Parkway, and they rushed over. Sure enough they tracked him down, and he is now home and very happy. He’s skin and bones, but seems healthy. We are all filled with joy!!!!

Thank you so much for all your support and prayers! We will never forget all that you have done for us to keep us going these last two weeks!

Below is the original story that was published in the Tuesday, Oct. 6 edition of the Suffolk News-Herald:

A North Suffolk family continues to search for one of its most beloved pets following a home burglary two weeks ago.

On Friday, Sept. 25, the Rein family was one of the victims in a string of burglaries in North Suffolk. Two burglars, who have since been arrested, kicked in two doors to the family’s home and made off with some of the family’s personal items.

Upon their arrest, some of those items were returned. What was not returned, however, was the family’s five-year-old Chihuahua/rat terrier dog, Buster.

Buster was apparently so frightened during the break in, he ran out the opened doors and has not returned home.

“He must have been so scared,” said Tom Rein, Buster’s owner. “He never went anywhere. He’s the kind of dog that if you let him off his leash, he’d just sit on the front steps.”

When Rein’s wife Stephanie and daughters, Jessica and Ashlyn, came home on Friday and found Buster missing, they immediately began looking for him. Since that time, the Reins have not stopped searching the local neighborhoods and community looking for Buster.

“The girls have gone from every house to house basically from Driver to Lowe’s all the way up to Farm Fresh,” Tom said. He added the biggest lead the family has had thus far was when some residents near Daily Acres Road spotted the dog early that Friday afternoon. They tried to catch him, but the dog ran into the neighboring woods.

“I’ve walked these woods from one side to the other, back and forth, and there is no sign of him,” Tom said. “He’s not a woods type of dog either.”

The Rein family is still optimistic, though, because no one has reported seeing a dead dog that would match Buster’s description.

“The only hope we have is somebody picked him up and thought, ‘This is a cute dog, we’ll keep it and see if anybody is looking for him,’” Tom said.

Buster was not wearing his collar at the time of the break-in because the family does not put the collars on the dogs while they are inside, Tom said.

“And that’s weird because we’re super careful,” Tom said. “We have a fence, they’re always on a leash, but who thinks somebody’s going to break into your house and make your dog run away?”

Buster is a male dog, mostly white with brown markings. Tom asked anyone who has any information about where the dog might be to call 651-0855.

“The family is just sick about it,” he said. “We just want our dog back.”