Current:Home > ScamsGizmo the dog went missing in Las Vegas in 2015. He’s been found alive after 9 years-InfoLens
Gizmo the dog went missing in Las Vegas in 2015. He’s been found alive after 9 years
View Date:2024-12-23 15:34:02
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Judith Monarrez crumpled onto her kitchen floor and wept when the news arrived in an email: Gizmo, her pet dog missing for nine years, had been found alive.
Monarrez was 28 and living with her parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then 2 years old, slipped past a faulty gate in the backyard of their home in Las Vegas.
The decade that followed brought a lot of change. Monarrez, now 37, moved into her own home, earned a master’s degree in English, and began her teaching career in higher education. But throughout the years, Monarrez said, she never stopped trying to find Gizmo.
Now, she was climbing into her car to drive across town to meet Gizmo at an animal hospital. Monarrez was later told that a woman had found the now 11-year-old dog and dropped him off at the vet, where they scanned his microchip, triggering the email notification that sent Monarrez to her knees, crying.
Within hours of receiving that email on July 17, Gizmo was back in his owner’s arms. Monarrez called it “a miracle.”
“Hindsight is 2020,” she said. “I’m so glad I registered his microchip.”
Their reunion came at the same time a new Las Vegas city ordinance requiring pet owners to microchip their cats and dogs is set to take effect Aug. 1.
Monarrez said Thursday that Gizmo’s first week back at home has brought mixed emotions.
It’s clear, she said, that the nine years they had spent apart had changed Gizmo, too. 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 his teeth were missing.
“Even though he looked so different, when I looked in his eyes I knew immediately 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 he didn’t stop staring at me.”
While Monarrez and her parents can’t stop thinking about what Gizmo endured after he went missing, their focus now, she said, is on addressing his health issues and “showering him with all the love that we were holding onto for all those years.”
veryGood! (716)
Related
- NASCAR Cup Series Championship race 2024: Start time, TV, live stream, odds, lineup
- US Reps. Green and Kustoff avoid Tennessee primaries after GOP removes opponents from ballot
- Boeing pushes back on whistleblower’s allegations and details how airframes are put together
- New recruiting programs put Army, Air Force on track to meet enlistment goals. Navy will fall short
- Rachael Ray Details Getting Bashed Over Decision to Not Have Kids
- What to know about the prison sentence for a movie armorer in a fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin
- Timeline of events: Bodies found in connection to missing Kansas women, 4 people arrested
- Decades after a US butterfly species vanished, a close relative is released to fill gap
- Tennessee suspect in dozens of rapes is convicted of producing images of child sex abuse
- The Ultimatum’s Ryann Taylor Is Pregnant, Expecting First Baby With James Morris
Ranking
- Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion
- 'Golden Bachelor' star Theresa Nist speaks out after bombshell divorce announcement
- You may need Form 4868 to file a tax extension. Here's what to know as deadline looms.
- Atlantic City mayor, wife charged with abusing and assaulting teenage daughter
- ‘Heretic’ and Hugh Grant debut with $11 million, but ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ tops box office again
- Caitlin Clark is best thing to happen to WNBA. Why are some players so frosty toward her?
- Trump trial: Why can’t Americans see or hear what is going on inside the courtroom?
- Federal law enforcement investigating Baltimore bridge collapse, sources say
Recommendation
-
The Best Gifts for People Who Don’t Want Anything
-
He didn't want her to have the baby. So he poisoned their newborn's bottle with antifreeze.
-
Coral bleaching caused by warming oceans reaches alarming globe milestone, scientists say
-
Much of central US faces severe thunderstorm threat and possible tornadoes
-
Dramatic video shows Phoenix police rescue, pull man from car submerged in pool: Watch
-
Ciara Reveals Why She Wants to Lose 70 Pounds of Her Post-Baby Weight
-
RHOP's Candiace Dillard Bassett Shares Big Announcement After Leaving the Show
-
William Decker: From business genius to financial revolution leader