Missing dog reunited with family after 12 years

‘I definitely didn’t expect this to ever happen so I’m really excited’

The dog was reunited with its owner after 12 years. (San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office)

A dog who had been missing for so long it was listed as deceased has been reunited with its family after 12 years.

According to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, Animal Services Officer Brandon Levin got a call about a stray dog “who had been dropped off on a rural property outside Stockton”.

When Officer Levin arrived, he scanned the dog, which had been described as looking old and unwell, to see if it had a microchip, and to his surprise the dog had been reported missing a decade earlier.

The information on the chip said the dog was called zopey and went missing from Lafeyette, California in 2010, police said.

“Zoey had been missing for so long, in 2015 the microchip company had actually listed her as “deceased” in their records,” the sheriff’s office wrote on its Facebook page.

“Even more amazing, the owners still had the same phone number, though they now live in Benecia. We met the owner Michelle in Rio Vista, where she and Zoey reunited after 12 years apart.”

After the reunion, Zoey’s owner Michelle told NBC News: “We got her at the pound when she was six months old with her twin sister ... they were with us for about six months and then we went to the store for about 20 minutes and came back and she was missing.”

She added in an interview the the BBC: “I’m excited to hopefully bring her back, get her healthy and let her live the rest of her life.

“I definitely didn’t expect this to ever happen so I’m really excited.”