Dylan Reedy came home from work in late November to an empty house. Timber, the hound mix he’d raised since the dog was five weeks old, was gone.
“I was really upset,” said Reedy, 32. “I was looking everywhere for him.”
He scoured his neighborhood in Brown County, Ohio, and visited local shelters. Reedy said he isn’t sure how Timber got out since the windows and doors in his home were closed. It’s possible, he said, that someone he knew who had been inside his home let the dog out.
After months of searching, Reedy said, he was beginning to lose hope. He felt heartbroken.
Little did he know, Timber, 4, had ended up nearly 90 minutes away at a shelter in Hamilton, Ohio. He was brought in as a stray to Animal Friends Humane Society on Nov. 28 — the day after he went missing.
He wasn’t microchipped, so there was no way to trace him back to Reedy. The dog had a deep cut on his front left leg, shelter staff said, and they started him on antibiotics and pain medication before sending him to a foster home to recover.
Myra Sprinkles, a dog care supervisor at the shelter, said that the dog’s foster is a nurse. “She kept real good care of him,” she said.
A few weeks later, once the dog’s leg was healed, he returned to the shelter, and the staff named him Flash.
Flash — who remained at the shelter for more than 250 days — quickly became a favorite among staff and volunteers.
“Flash was always happy-go-lucky … he was a barrel of fun, he loved to run and chase the ball. He loved belly rubs and nose boops and cuddles and treats. He was just a fantastic dog,” Sprinkles said. “We couldn’t understand why he sat here for so long without anybody wanting him.”
On Aug. 4, Chris Ferguson, who refurbishes bicycles and donates the proceeds to local shelters, stopped by Animal Friends Humane Society for his regular visit to make a donation. Each time he visits, staff take a photo of him with a dog, and that day they chose Flash, one of the shelter’s longest residents. They posted the photo on Facebook.
Reedy — who moved from Brown County to Hamilton in March — said his girlfriend came across the post and showed it to him.
“I cried as soon as I saw him,” he said. “I instantly knew it was him.”
Reedy said he had thought of Timber every day since he went missing.
“I prayed that I could figure out what happened to him and that he was okay,” he said.
Reedy said he never anticipated Timber would turn up more than eight months later, about 73 miles from where he’d gone missing — and just down the road from Reedy’s new home. The story was first reported by Fox19.
The morning after he saw the Facebook post, Reedy went straight to the shelter.
“He was excited to see me. He knew who I was right away,” he said. “It was pretty awesome.”
The reunion was emotional for shelter staff, too.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in the shelter,” Sprinkles said. “Flash was thrilled. Dad was thrilled.”
Sprinkles has been working at the shelter for 10 years, and in that time, she said, she has only seen a handful of reunions like this.
“I think it’s just amazing,” she said. “Clearly the universe had other plans.”
Reedy said he is grateful to shelter staff for looking after Timber for so many months.
“The shelter took really good care of him,” he said.
Since coming home, Reedy said, Timber has settled back in quickly.
“It’s just been such a good mood around here,” Reedy said. “He’s made it feel like home.”
The post His dog vanished. More than 8 months later, he saw Timber on Facebook. appeared first on Washington Post.
