When a dog disappears, it is always heartbreaking. You search everywhere, hope to be found, but at some point you start to lose hope. But sometimes miracles happen. Lost pets are only discovered months or even years after they disappear… Sometimes when you least expect it. This is the case recently. A woman saw a familiar face on a dog-raising website, which led to a beautiful reunion with an old friend. Aisha Nieves from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania loves her dog, a bulldog mix named Kovu, more important than anything.
“He was my baby. He would go with me everywhere. He would sleep in my bed,” Aisha told WFMZ. “Literally, the definition of a man’s best friend.” But Aisha was devastated in 2019, when a car struck her home in Allentown, which led to Kovu disappearing. “I found out he was gone when I came home later that day and he wasn’t there to run to me and give me kisses like he usually did,” she told The Morning Call. “I searched the whole house and couldn’t find him, then looked around Allentown for a good week or so and still couldn’t find him.”
A few weeks later, she received even worse news: The Lehigh County Humane Society found Kovu, but was told that the dog had been adopted by another family. She was frustrated, thinking that her best friend was gone forever. But two years later, he received an unexpected surprise. Aisha said she noticed a face that was obviously familiar when she randomly scrolled through the Humane Society adoption page: Kovu’s.
Although the dog was listed as “Ash”, she knew he was her old friend. “There is a scar above his right eye,” he told WFMZ. “You don’t notice that much anymore, but in the images they have, you can see it. She couldn’t believe it, it was him. How did you get back to the shelter? LCHS Development Director Deirdre Deirdre Snyder told the Morning Post that the family who adopted him in October 2019 handed him out earlier this month after facing possible deportation. Shortly after, Aisha saw Kewu on the scene, it was a great coincidence, but it gave her an unexpected opportunity to find her beloved dog two years later.
But after so long apart, during which time Kovu was part of a different family, Aisha wondered how her dog would react to seeing her again as she arrived at the Humane Society: “I was sweating. My hands started shaking. I was scared he wouldn’t remember me because it had been so long. I sat there, waiting for them to bring him out.”
But as soon as Kovu saw her, he was bursting with joy and excitement. It was clear that there was no lost love between these two. “He was screaming, trying to get away from the guy holding him and run to me,” Aisha said. “Then, he just jumped on me and we started kissing and hugging.”
“I told him, ‘Yeah, buddy, you’re going home. I’m so sorry this happened. Never again am I losing you.’” Now, these two are safe at home together, making up for lost time. “I love him so much, like I’m just so happy he’s back,” Aisha told WFMZ.