When Kathleen Juhasz's puppy was stolen from her backyard in Windsor, she thought he was lost and gone forever.
Shiner was a baby when they met. And it was love at first sight. The bulldog mix was a gift from her ex-husband that she and her three kids could share. He was the kind of dog you might mistake for a rabbit. "Shiner was so small that I actually thought he was a rabbit," Juhasz said.
Their time together didn't last long. Shiner was just five months old when he disappeared. Stolen from the backyard, Juhasz says, "I was heartbroken. I searched everywhere for him, when people would be walking their dogs in the park I'd be looking for him." She put up a notice in the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society too, but no luck.
Then she stopped hoping and stopped looking. Soon after she moved away. When the family moved to Hamilton, Juhasz brought Shiner's old bed and leash with them. Gone but not forgotten.
Two years passed since he disappeared. Then, out of the blue, a call came from her daughter's friend in Windsor. A dog that looked like Shiner had been spotted in a photo on the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society's website. The dog was up for adoption.
"I called them up and said this is my puppy," Juhasz said.
'I was just in so much shock,' Juhasz said
Turns out, the humane society had taken him in as a stray in February and put up his photo on their website just last week, after no one came to claim him.
Juhasz took the kids and headed to Windsor. It was love at first sight again, two years later.
At first Shiner gave Juhasz a dead stare, she said. A pause. Then he went crazy. "I went to meet him with my ex-husband so Shiner recognized us. I thought he'd break his hip, he was wagging his tail so much!"
Melanie Coulter, Executive Director of the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society said "Initially, we were very skeptical that it was Kathleen's dog, but when we saw his pictures as a puppy, we were sure it was their dog. We were all amazed that she found him after such a long time."
Juhasz was amazed too.
"I was just in so much shock that I found him, after so long," she said. Juhasz says her kids remembered him too, even though her son was just 3-years-old when Shiner was taken. "Just two days before we travelled to Windsor, my son mentioned that he missed his dog, it was so strange."
Shiner has a new home with the Juhasz family, living in Hamilton.
