This Virginia family relocated to a new town 20 miles away after losing their cherished Corgi/shepherd mix, Dante, and being devastated. They entered a nearby shelter three months later and discovered their lost pet!
Ruth Parada de Martinez exclaims, “We love him so much.” God answered my requests,
On July 26, while out on a stroll, Dante lost his leash while attempting to chase after some other dogs and vanished. Ruth claims that when she realized that Dante had vanished, she became distraught and left work to look for him. No one knew where Dante went, and despite searching the neighborhood and asking her neighbors, the dog never surfaced.
A 60-pound, brown-and-white stray dog was discovered on August 2 and taken to the Fairfax County Animal Shelter.
The pleasant, active dog was found without a collar or microchip, so the shelter’s employees looked through local lost dog reports in an effort to track down the dog’s family.
The friendly stray was given the name “Soldier” by the shelter, which chose to find him a nice home.
There were multiple meet-and-greets for “Solider” with prospective adoptive families, but no real introductions.
Ruth went to the shelter on October 15 in search of a new pet along with her daughters and grandson. Ruth’s daughter noticed a picture of a dog in the shelter’s foyer that seemed familiar. “Mommy, it’s Dante,” she said.
They requested to meet him. The dog instantly recognized his family.
On October 16, Ruth praised the animal shelter for taking care of the dog and showed them images of the dog when she was a puppy.
“People often remark, “Oh, my dog never leaves the house, my cat never leaves my side.” Things do happen, and creatures do elude us, “Currier asserts. “We make every effort to reunite owners with their animals. But the fact that you can identify yourself just makes things so much simpler. We could have returned Dante to his family much sooner if he had an ID.”
