“My heart dropped.” Seven years ago, Brittany Simpson and her family faced an unthinkable tragedy: their beloved dog, Ruger, disappeared from their front yard, seemingly taken by someone.
“We searched for a good month after he went missing,” Simpson recalled in a heartfelt post, noting that Ruger had been microchipped. Despite their efforts, they found no trace of him.
As time passed, Ruger remained absent from their lives. But recently, everything changed.
Last week, Simpson was scrolling through Facebook when she stumbled upon a photo that stopped her in her tracks. It was a picture of a dog posted on a local “lost/found pet” forum by a Good Samaritan named Rebecca.
Just hours before, Rebecca had discovered the dog wandering on her property, looking worse for wear. Hoping to reunite him with his family, she shared his photo, unaware of how long it had been since they last saw him.
Simpson was left stunned by what she saw.
“I immediately saw him and my heart dropped!” Simpson exclaimed. “I thought, ‘That looks so much like my dog.'”
The dog appeared older than Simpson remembered Ruger being, but all the distinctive markings were there, triggering Simpson’s memories.
“I believe this is my dog,” Simpson wrote in a comment on Rebecca’s post. “He’s been missing for 7 years!”
She posted a photo as proof.
Excitement filled the air as the truth unfolded — the lost dog was indeed Ruger.
“[Rebecca] took him to the vet,” Simpson recounted. “About an hour later, I received a call from the microchip agency confirming he was mine!”
Simpson hurried to the vet’s office, eager to finally reunite with the pup she had once feared she might never see again.
Before Ruger went missing, he was a cherished companion to Simpson’s young children. Despite their growth over the years, Ruger had never left their hearts. Now that Ruger is back home, he is gradually readjusting to life with his loving family. The circumstances of where he had been all those years remain a mystery, but an untreated skin condition he was found with suggests he wasn’t well cared for by whoever had him.
“He’s getting back to his old self now,” Simpson said.
Ruger is finally back where he belongs, and his family couldn’t be happier.