It’s always heartbreaking when a pet goes missing — you search everywhere wondering where they might be.
But it’s important not to lose hope, because sometimes lost pets return to us when we least expect them in the most surprising ways.
That was the case for one family, who went to adopt a new dog after their own seemed lost for good — only to unexpectedly find the lost pet at the shelter.
Ruth Parada de Martinez and her family, from Virginia, were devastated when their Corgi/shepherd mix Dante went missing.
“When Dante disappeared, I felt like a part of me was gone,” Ruth told People, saying she adopted the dog as a puppy in 2017 as a comfort and support dog for the family after her daughter was diagnosed with lymphoma.
In the aftermath of Dante’s disappearance, the family moved to a new town 20 miles away, and after three months went by with no sign of their lost dog, they decided to begin looking for a new rescue dog.
They visited the Fairfax County Animal Shelter, but none of the pets seemed the right fit to take Dante’s place.
“They’d been looking around for a while, but just hadn’t felt a connection yet,” the shelter wrote on Facebook. “They looked through our adoption kennels but still no one caught their eye.”
But as they were leaving, one of the kids looked at the photos of available dogs — and noticed one that looked very familiar. It was Dante!
According to the shelter, the family didn’t think the dog would’ve turned up in a shelter this far away, so they were truly stunned.
“Usually, we’re able to reunite about 70 percent of the pets that come into us as strays with their owners,” the shelter’s director Reasa Currier told People. “But there was just nothing that we could find.”
Fairfax County Animal Shelter had taken Dante in as a stray, and referred to him as “Soldier.” Currier described him as a “darling,” a “great dog” and “super sweet.”
According to the Facebook post, Dante was as excited to see his family as they were to see him: the shelter wrote that he was “absolutely overjoyed to see his family” and was jumping and wagging his tail as he greeted them.
“It’s clear that Dante is a very loved member of the family, and we were so happy that everything worked out for the best,” Fairfax County Animal Shelter wrote.
“Maybe this was the universe not letting them feel a connection with any other dog, because Dante was still waiting for them.”
What an incredible coincidence. We’re so glad Dante and his family were miraculously reunited like this ❤️
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