Missing Dog Reunited with Owner After 9 Years Thanks to Microchip: 'Our Baby Is Back!'
The 11-year-old canine, named Gizmo, was found in "very rough shape," according to his owner
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A photo of Gizmo after he was foundA woman in Las Vegas never lost hope that she would be reunited with her beloved dog, who disappeared nearly a decade ago — and it finally paid off.
On July 18, Judith Monarrez revealed on Facebook that after nine long years of searching for her dog Gizmo, the pair were finally “reunited.” She had been looking for the pup since 2015, when he escaped from the backyard of her Las Vegas home at the age of 2.
“Our baby is back!” Monarrez, 37, declared. However, she also noted that Gizmo was “in very rough shape.”
In a GoFundMe she created to raise funds to care for the dog, Monarrez noted that Gizmo was found with “multiple infections, dental disease, and would need extensive care,” adding that she was "a little shocked at his condition.”
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“I cannot fathom what he went through” she wrote on Facebook. “He’s going to need lots of care and lots of love.”
Monarrez told the Associated Press that the reunion came about thanks to a woman who had found the now 11-year-old dog and brought him to a local veterinarian. The veterinarian’s office was able to scan his microchip and contact her through the information found within it.
“Hindsight is 20/20,” she told the outlet. “I’m so glad I registered his microchip.”
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On July 17, Monarrez received an email that Gizmo had been found and within hours, she drove down to the veterinarian’s office to pick him up. She described their reunion as “a miracle.”
“Even though he looked so different, when I looked in his eyes I knew immediately it was Gizmo,” Monarrez told the AP. “And as soon as I said his name, he tilted his head and he didn’t stop staring at me.”
Now that she and her canine companion are together again, Monarrez told the outlet she plans to focus on addressing Gizmo's health issues and “showering him with all the love that we were holding onto for all those years.”
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In a Facebook post on July 20, she shared an update about his condition, saying that the animal’s doctors “suspect he has old fractures due to his neck making his head tilt a certain way and his little legs bending when he walks.”
Monarrez also noted that there were some improvements, as “his eyes are doing better with antibiotics.” But, she said, Gizmo had “dry eye syndrome too on top of his infection.”
“[We’ve] got a ways to go, but he’s doing much better!” she added.
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