A missing dog belonging to a family from Arkansas has turned up in Calgary, and will soon be on its way home.

The Labrador-cross — known as River or Buddy — was found wandering in a Calgary park last week.

Bylaw officers discovered the dog had a microchip, and found out he was supposedly abducted as a puppy four years ago from a family in Arkansas.

Officials don't know how the dog ended up roughly 3,000 kilometres from his home, but now that his real identity has been discovered he will be flown back to his original owners in the U.S. Tuesday.

"We always say the licence is your ticket home and it should be backed up by a microchip," said Bill Bruce of Animal and Bylaw Services.

"And in this case he didn’t have a licence, but he did have a microchip. And as we say, the ticket home is what it's all about — it's how we get lost dogs home."

Bruce said Calgary Animal Services returns around 95 percent of lost dogs with microchips to their owners.