After losing their beloved dog three months earlier, a Virginia family goes to adopt a new dog from the shelter and finds their missing pup. Back in July, their Corgi/shepherd mix, Dante, got off his leash while out on a walk. They searched everywhere for him, but never found him. "When Dante disappeared, I felt like a part of me was gone," says his owner Ruth Parada de Martinez.
On Saturday, October 15th, after having moved to a new home 20 miles from their previous address, Ruth went to the Fairfax County Animal Shelter with her daughters and two-year-old grandson to look into getting a new dog. They didn’t feel like they had a connection with any of the dogs in the shelter, but as they were leaving, Ruth's ten-year-old daughter, Kayla, noticed a flier for another available dog, and it looked very familiar. "Mommy, it's Dante!," she said.
At first, Ruth didn’t believe the dog from the flier named Soldier could possibly be their dog, but they asked to see the pup. When staff from the shelter brought out the dog, there was no denying it was Dante. "He just started pulling, he was wiggling all over," says Fairfax County Animal Shelter director Reasa Currier. "We immediately knew that this was Dante's family. They were crying. Dante was just jumping. And he was clearly thrilled to see his family again." The shelter posted the story to social media and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. The Martinez family is grateful for the care given to Dante while he was gone and happy to have their fur baby back home. "We love him so much," says Ruth.
Source: People