How an Army Vet From Georgia Found His Missing Dog After 4 Years

Four years ago, Michael Joy decided to move from Georgia to Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The Army vet planned on taking his four-month-old puppy, Sam, on the road trip with him, but the dog got loose. “I drove around the neighborhood; I went to local shelters. I was looking for him hard,” Michael explains.

He eventually moved to Fort Campbell but continued to look for Sam. “I came to Campbell, and I kept looking,” Michael explains. “I kept going back and forth, also I went there three or four times after I moved here. Just maybe he would've shown up down there.”

He could never find Sam, so Michael and his family got a new black lab and named him Sam. They went on with their lives, and miraculously four years later, they got a call from an animal shelter in Ohio because the dog he lost four years ago was found. Michael hopped in the car and drove three states to pick up his baby.

Thanks to Sam’s microchip, they were able to reunite again. “It was like coming back home from a deployment and seeing your family for like a first time in a year," Michael says.” Reunited, and it feels so good.

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