Family reunites with dog who ran away nine months ago
When Huckleberry the Australian Shepherd ran away on New Years Eve his devastated owners never guessed they would be reunited with him nine months later.
On December 31, 2018, as most people were counting down to the beginning of 2019, Eddie Baldenegro and Cheryl Smith were looking for their beloved dog.
Huckleberry became spooked by the fireworks and ran away from their property in Queen Creek, in the US state of Arizona.
For nine long months the family searched the local area for the missing canine and shared images of Huckleberry to Facebook, hoping to be reunited with their beloved pooch.
“(It was) The hardest nine months of my life, not knowing where he was – was killing me,” an emotional Mr Baldenegro told Fox 10.
Ms Smith told the news outlet they tried to keep positive and hoped their dog had found another loving family to take care of him.
“He was going to make somebody a really neat dog and they needed him more than we did,” she said.
Just when they were starting to lose faith, the family heard whispers of a stray dog that was often seen at a garbage tip 32 kilometres away from their property.
The staff at Republic Landfill Services had been leaving food out for the dog and Ms Smith and Mr Baldenegro drove there, hoping that it was Huckleberry.
When they arrived they saw Huckleberry and at first he was hesitant to approach the couple.
“There’s Huckleberry, he’s very scared and confused,” Ms Smith said as she filmed the moment they spotted him among the piles of landfill.
A few moments later Ms Smith said Huckleberry recognised Mr Baldenegro and ran toward him, leaping with joy into his owner’s arms.
Ms Smith thanked everyone who had continually helped search for the dog on her Facebook page and said she was ‘pinching herself’ after finally bringing Huckleberry home.
“As each day passed you all hung in there never giving up,” she wrote.
“He is home safe and we are all blessed he touched so many hearts! Huckleberry is one amazing dog!” she wrote.
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