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A Florida brewery’s idea to print adoptable dogs on their beer can labels in hopes of finding them homes led to the incredible reunion of a Minnesota woman and her dog that went missing 3 years ago in Iowa!
Last week, Monica Mathis was scrolling through Facebook from her home in Minnesota when a story out of Florida caught the dog lover’s eye.
In the hopes of finding forever homes for some long-time residents at Manatee County Animal Services, the shelter teamed up with Bradenton, Florida brewery, Motorworks Brewing, to showcase the pups on beer can labels. In addition to putting the spotlight on the special pups, money raised from the sale of the special brew goes directly to the shelter.
It didn’t take long, however, for one of the featured pups to finally find her forever home—back with the family that lost her three years ago!
Day Day, as the shelter had called her, looked a lot like Hazel, Minnesota resident Monica Mathis’ dog. Hazel had gone missing from the family’s former home in Iowa three years earlier.
“I really thought she was gone. I never thought I’d see her again,” Mathis told reporters. “I had a doubt, I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh, it looks like her, but is it really her?” She called Manatee County Animal Services and provided information needed to verify it was, in fact, her long-lost dog.
The shelter had scanned Day Day for a microchip, but were unable to track down the dog’s owner as the microchip registration was out of date.
“We saw photos and vet records. This dog was such an important part of her family that she had everything to prove she was her owner,” said Hans Wohlgefahrt, who works at the animal shelter. “There was really no way we could trace her back to that particular owner. It’s a great reminder to people when they do these things to go into their profile and make sure all their contact information is up to date.”
No one knows how Hazel made it from Iowa to Florida, but the chain of events that led to the family’s reunion was nothing short of miraculous.
A non-profit organization, Friends of Manatee County Animal Services is arranging to transport Hazel to Minnesota where she’ll finally be reunited with her family.
