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It’s always heartbreaking when a dog goes missing. You search everywhere, hoping they’ll be found, but at a certain point you start to lose hope.
But sometimes miracles happen, and lost pets have been found months or even years after they disappeared… sometimes when you least expect them.
That was the case recently, after a woman spotted a familiar face on a dog adoption website, leading to a beautiful reunion with an old friend.
Aisha Nieves, from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, loved her dog, a pitbull-rottweiler mix named Kovu, more than anything.
“He was my baby. He would go with me everywhere. He would sleep in my bed,” Aisha told WFMZ. “Literally, the definition of a man’s best friend.”
But Aisha was devastated in 2019, when a car struck her home in Allentown, which led to Kovu disappearing.
“I found out he was gone when I came home later that day and he wasn’t there to run to me and give me kisses like he usually did,” she told The Morning Call.
“I searched the whole house and couldn’t find him, then looked around Allentown for a good week or so and still couldn’t find him.”
Weeks later, she got even worse news: Kovu had been found by the Lehigh County Humane Society, but she was told the dog had already been adopted out by another family.
She was devastated, and thought her best friend was gone for good. But two years later, she got an unexpected surprise.
Aisha says she was randomly scrolling the Humane Society’s adoption page when she noticed an unmistakably familiar face: Kovu’s.
While the dog was listed as “Ash,” she knew it was her old friend. “He had a scar right over his right eye,” she told WFMZ. “It’s not that noticeable anymore, but in the picture they had, you could see it.”
She couldn’t believe it, but it really was him. How did he end up back in the shelter? LCHS director of development Deirdre Snyder told Morning Call that the family who adopted him in October 2019 had surrendered him earlier this month, after facing possible eviction.
It was a remarkable coincidence that Aisha happened to see Kovu on the site soon after, but it gave her an unexpected opportunity to get her beloved dog back after two years apart.
But after so long apart, during which time Kovu was part of a different family, Aisha wondered how her dog would react to seeing her again as she arrived at the Humane Society: “I was sweating. My hands started shaking. I was scared he wouldn’t remember me because it had been so long. I sat there, waiting for them to bring him out.”
But as soon as Kovu saw her, he was bursting with joy and excitement. It was clear that there was no lost love between these two.
“He was screaming, trying to get away from the guy holding him and run to me,” Aisha said. “Then, he just jumped on me and we started kissing and hugging.”
“I told him, ‘Yeah, buddy, you’re going home. I’m so sorry this happened. Never again am I losing you.’”
Now, these two are safe at home together, making up for lost time. “I love him so much, like I’m just so happy he’s back,” Aisha told WFMZ.
What a miracle. We’re so glad Aisha was able to find her dog after all these years, in such an unexpected way. So glad Kovu is home!
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