Ind. Family Who Started an Animal Rescue Reunited with Missing Dog 8 Years After Pet's Disappearance
Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control/Facebook
Two Indiana women are thanking modern technology for helping them reunite with their beloved dog eight years after he went missing.
Cara Seiler and Kailey Kuntz first adopted Kemo, a Blue American Bulldog/Pitbull mix, as a puppy. Unfortunately, the happy family was separated when the pup disappeared in 2013 when he was just 2 years old.
"We had always hoped. We never really stopped looking," Seiler told ABC21 this week. "We were always watching 'Found Pet' posts all over just to see if any might have been him."
On Tuesday, the pair got the call they had been anxiously awaiting for nearly a decade: Kemo had been found!
"And I'm like, 'What? What do you mean they have Kemo?'" Seiler exclaimed. "He's like 'They have Kemo. You have to call them.'"
Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control/Facebook/Facebook
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control said Kemo was brought to the facility as a stray. It was only when the dog was scanned for a microchip that the incredible discovery was made.
Seiler said the two cried "all the way from Auburn to Fort Wayne."
RELATED: Aly Raisman's Rescue Dog Mylo Found Safe Nearly a Week After Going Missing: 'My Everything'
"I can't describe it. I can't," Seiler told ABC21 of the moment they reunited. "And he knew who we were the second we walked through the door. So that's what made it even more surreal."
"We are over the moon happy that Kemo was finally reunited with his family! This was such a heartwarming moment to watch and we're so glad Kemo had a microchip to make this moment possible," the shelter wrote on Facebook.
Holly Pasquinelli of the FWACC said this reunion is the longest she has seen at the center due to a microchip, and that the staff was pleased to help bring Kemo and his owners back together.
"We were just so happy that this dog that had been missing that they'd probably given up hope on was finally able to make his way back home," Pasquinelli told ABC21 via video call.
While Kemo was missing, Seiler and Kuntz began their own animal rescue in Waterloo called "Canine Haven." All rescues brought to the facility are microchipped so families can reunite with lost pets like them.
RELATED: ASPCA Helps North Carolina Truck Driver Reunite with Emotional Support Dog He Lost in N.Y.C.
The FWACC also encourages pet owners to microchip their furry friends.
"We hope this story inspires anyone who is missing a pet to never give up hope! We also urge everyone to please get your pets microchipped just in case they were to ever get lost," the shelter wrote in their Facebook post.
"It is just such an important thing to get your pets microchipped because it's a permanent form of identification that will never fall off, never go missing, and never leave," Pasquinelli told ABC21.
