OAKLAND — For three years the family wondered. They worried. They hoped.

Then on Monday, the phone call came.

Their stolen Shiba Inu, Hana, a rare Japanese breed with a reddish coat and pointed ears, was found running around Oakland streets.

A microchip planted inside Hana helped the pooch find her way home.

“We didn’t think we’d ever see her again,” said Hana’s owner Ian McNesby, who lives in Tracy with his wife and their two children. “After three years, you start to lose hope. We’re so excited to see her again. It is all we’ve been talking about.”

The McNesbys adopted Hana five years ago when McNesby was stationed overseas in Japan, said Oakland Animal Services Volunteer Coordinator Vickie Bell.

Eventually the family moved back home to Tracy.

“One day I came home, the gate to the backyard was open, and Hana was gone,” recalled Yuko McNesby, Ian’s wife. “The kids, especially Gen, our son, were crying for days.”

The children posted fliers around their Tracy neighborhood, but Hana was nowhere to be found. On Thursday, she was reunited with the family at the Oakland animal shelter, as cameras snapped and radio reporters held out their microphones hoping for the perfect sound bite from Hana.

The pooch is healthy but is missing fur from the back of her body, the result of a flea allergy, for which she is being treated.

“We and our rescue partners love a happy ending like this, but it isn’t always the case that we can connect lost dogs to their owners,” Bell said. “We at Oakland Animal Services cannot stress enough the importance of microchipping and placing a tag on your animal — it’s how animal control officers, volunteers and staff can connect the dots to ensure even more amazing reunions happen, like that between the McNesbys and Hana.”

Staff writer Karina Ioffee contributed to this report. Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund.