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A Chicago woman was miraculously reunited with her adorable dog 12 years after the pet vanished and had to ruff it on the street.
“I broke down completely. She was back with me. A piece of my heart was back with me,” Vanessa Antonino said of her tearful reunion with the now 16-year-old pooch.
Antonino was living in her car with the 4-year-old chihuahua, Flor, in 2014 when she left for work and returned to find the pup gone, she told NBC.
“There was a time in my life when I wasn’t put together. I was from place to place, living in my car, staying in my car, and Flor was there with me through everything,” she said.
Antonino frantically searched for the dog and was heartbroken when she couldn’t find her, she said.
“I had not fully given up on her, but it’s just like ‘so many years had passed,’ and I was like ‘I don’t think I’ll ever see her again,’” she said.
Over the next decade, Antonino had three kids and would sometimes show them a photo of the pooch, describing her as their big sister, she said.
The dog tale then took a happy turn when Flor was found scampering by a roadside after a recent storm in Geary, Indiana, roughly 30 miles from Chicago, according to officials at the nearby Evanston Animal Shelter.
“There was a lady from Louisiana who was helping with the storm damage in Indiana, and she actually found Flor near some roads, and so she was obviously scared she was going to get hit,” volunteer Gillian Primavera said.
Workers soon sniffed out the lucky dog’s microchip and managed to track down Antonino for a joyful reunion at the shelter.
Heartwarming footage showed Antonino beaming as she embraced the long-lost, now-graying pet after all these years.
“I just bawled,” Antonino said of her tears of happiness.
