I’ve got a great story to share, but first I want to make sure you’re planning on coming to see me at the Taste of Home Cooking School this Thursday at the Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center in Macon. I’ll be there with my buddy Mark Ballard, and I’ll be bringing the sugar. So come find me, and I’ll generously share my sugar with you.

Now on to my story. I spend lots of time helping frantic families find lost pets. My life would be so much easier if every pet wore legible ID tags and was microchipped. In fact, please check your pet’s ID tag right now to make sure it is legible.

Although every family is distraught when they contact me about their lost pet, there are some people who really stand out. Miss Brandy Whitehead is one of those memorable people.

Miss Brandy contacted me on Facebook to say her mother’s dog, Bandit, had been missing for quite some time. In an unfortunate accident, a visitor inadvertently let Bandit out of their home near Pio Nono Avenue.

Miss Brandy had given the puppy to her mother, Miss Naomi Grace, as a gift for her birthday three years earlier. From that time on, the two were inseparable.

Miss Brandy posted photos of Bandit on my Facebook page and repeatedly posted comments about how her mom was grieving over his loss. With every post Miss Brandy made, the more I could feel her mom’s sorrow at the sheer void in her life since Bandit was lost. The pain her mom was suffering was apparent in every description.

The convoluted details of the story including how Bandit was picked up in Macon by someone in a blue van only to promptly jump out of the window and then rescued by someone else who observed that escape made my head spin. And it got even more complicated in the following weeks as the family conducted a relentless search for Bandit, leaving no stone unturned.

While this persistent search for Bandit was under way, Miss Naomi’s heart was breaking. She no longer participated in her favorite hobby of cooking and in fact, she wasn’t even interested in eating.

All she could do was grieve for Bandit.

After a couple of weeks of Bandit’s absence and watching her mother suffer, Miss Brandy was determined to keep searching. I’m happy to report that after some crazy twists and turns, Bandit was located in Perry.

There was a very happy reunion between Miss Naomi and Bandit. Bandit was wiggling and wagging, Miss Naomi was jumping for joy and then decided to cook a huge Sunday dinner!

Once again this shows there’s a space in a person’s heart that only the love and companionship of a pet can fill.

Send questions for AC Pup to acpup247@yahoo.com. Visit www.acpup.com or see his Facebook page.