Christine Johnson never gave up hope. A little more than a year ago, she let her Shetland sheepdog Marshall out into her yard in Utica one day and came back to find him missing.
"It was, I'm going to say, maybe 5 minutes max ... he just vanished," she said.
For months, Johnson and her family searched for Marshall without success, even sending his photo to local animal shelters and police departments. She eventually bought another dog, but she kept Marshall's photo on display in her home. Then, while out of town on a business trip Tuesday, she got a call from the New Hartford Animal Hospital -- Marshall had been found!
Dog and owner were reunited at the Animal Hospital on Wednesday morning amid tears, kisses and one eagerly wagging tail. Johnson said she always felt as if Marshall was coming home, but was still "speechless" to actually see him. "This is the type of joy you could never replace with a gift, money, anything," Johnson said.
It was a moving moment for staff members at the New Hartford Animal Hospital too, some of whom had been seeing the 6-year-old Sheltie since he was 6 weeks old. "It's our Christmas miracle," said Sandi Gentile, the office's supervisor for client service representatives.
Witnessing the reunion was also moving for Jennifer Major-Denicola, the Utica resident who found Marshall while driving home from Christmas shopping with her mother. While many other cars swerved or slowed down to avoid hitting the dog walking in the road that day, Major-Denicola made her mom stop the car. "I got out of the car and the cars coming behind stopped ... and I'm out in the middle of Oriskany Boulevard and was just like, 'Come here, baby,'" she said.
Marshall's fur was matted, he was dirty and he had a sore under his eye, but he seemed happy to see someone, she said. And he still had his collar with a rabies tag on it from the Animal Hospital.
Staff members at the vet's office said the dog's condition suggests he wasn't fending for himself for the entire year he was gone. It's possible, as Johnson suspects, that someone took him, and then either let him go or lost him themselves more recently.
Major-Denicola said she would have kept Marshall too if she couldn't find the owner, but since she could, she was happy to be able to return him. And Johnson was grateful to have her "momma's boy" back in her arms.
"I love her," she said of Major-Denicola. "I thank her for not taking him and keeping him away from me the way somebody else did."
http://www.uticaod.com/features/x1107421218/Lost-dog-reunited-with-owner-in-a-Christmas-miracle
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