Nearly five years after a little dog went missing from his Fort Worth backyard, the Humane Society of North Texas helped reunited him with his family.
Siobhan Allen says the last time they saw Duke was 2014.
"I let him and my other dog Queenie out in the backyard, we had a fenced in backyard, to go to the bathroom. About 10 minutes later I went to let him back in, and he was gone," said Allen.
Allen says she and her two young boys drove around looking for Duke and calling him by name. They even went up the street to the Humane Society of North Texas multiple times to see if a dog had been turned in.
"I kept telling my son, 'We'll find him. Don't worry. We'll find him,'" said Allen.
Still with the passage of time, she was sure he was gone forever and just hoped he had a new family to love him.
Then years later, she received a call.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"I was stunned. It shocked me. I couldn't believe after all this time he'd been brought in," said Allen.
Humane Society of North Texas's Cassie Lackey says the reunion was all thanks to a microchip the family got for Duke years before. Though they've since moved to Burleson, Allen's phone number was still the same.
"This is actually the longest case we've had of a missing pet at five years," said Lackey.
But in addition to technology, Lackey says Duke's reunion would not have been possible without some guardian angels that came in the form of Texas Wesleyan University football players.
"We were just coming back from practice, you know just a normal day, and we saw the dog on the side of the road," said Collier Ricks.
Ricks's teammate DJ Robinson happened to glance back right as another car hit the little dog.
"I was just praying that he was going to be okay because I know a car going full speed hitting a little dog, it's not going to be that well, you know?" said Robinson.
Together, they wrapped the little dog up and rushed him a couple of blocks away to the Humane Society of North Texas, the very place Allen had checked for Duke years before.
"It's surreal. After all these years, it's unbelievable that he's back," said Allen.
Now Duke is back home with Allen's other dog and the two boys who were just an infant and toddler when he disappeared.
"I had a dog growing up, so I know how that feels to lose a best friend. So I'm actually happy. I'm very happy he gets to see his best friend again," said Ricks.
HSNT says it will microchip pets at any of its locations seven days a week for just $15.
