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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Judith Monarrez collapsed on her kitchen floor and cried when the news came in an email: Gizmo, her dog missing for nine years, had been found alive.
Monarrez was 28 and living with her parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then 2, broke through a faulty gate in the backyard of her Las Vegas home.
The following decade brought many changes. Monarrez, now 37, moved into her own home, earned a master’s degree in English, and began her teaching career in higher education. But through the years, Monarrez said, he never stopped trying to find Gizmo.
Now, he gets into his car to drive across town to meet Gizmo at an animal hospital. Later, Monarrez was told that a woman had found the 11-year-old dog and dropped him off at the vet, where they scanned his microchip, triggering an email notification that sent Monarrez to his knees, crying.
A few hours after receiving that email on July 17, Gizmo was back in his owner’s arms. Monarrez called it “a miracle.”
“The retrospective is 2020,” he said. “I’m glad I registered his microchip.”
Their meeting came at the same time as a new Las Vegas city ordinance requiring pet owners to microchip its cats and dogs are put into effect on August 1.
Monarrez said Thursday that Gizmo’s first week at home brought mixed emotions.
It was clear, he said, that the nine years they had spent apart had also changed Gizmo. The 8-pound Chihuahua had grown afraid of shadows, heights and birds, and Gizmo now walked with a limp. Monarrez said both of the dog’s eyes were also severely infected, and some of its teeth were missing.
“Even though he looked so different, when I looked into his eyes, I immediately knew it was Gizmo,” Monarrez said, recalling the moment they were reunited at the vet’s office. “And as soon as I said his name, he tilted his head and didn’t stop looking at me.”
While Monarrez and his parents can’t stop thinking about what Gizmo went through after his disappearance, their focus now, she said, is to deal with his health issues and to “shower him with all the love we have had for all those years.”