Leigh’s Lost and Found: 17 year old missing Maltese reunited after seven months!

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - A success story to share in today’s Leigh’s Lost and Found.

Gizmo is a 17 yera old Maltese. He missing for seven months, but thanks to surveillance cameras and a microchip, he’s now back home and two little girls are very excited about that.

Mariah Pilikinton used her cell phone to capture the moment her two young daughters found out their lost dog was coming home.

She says, “we never expected this day to come so they were pretty excited and they didn’t know what to say.”

Gizmo disappeared from the family’s Fair Grove backyard last October when a fall festival was in town.

Mariah tells us, “we think that maybe someone just took him in, not realizing that he was lost. We started searching, asked everyone in the community we could, posted on Leigh’s Lost and Found. There were lots of nights the girls would put dog food on the porch and call his name before bed and we did everything we could for a long time and never found anything.”

Then last week, security cameras at Austin’s Pumping Service in Strafford caught someone dumping a little white dog.

“Somebody got out of a truck and looked around and then put him down and drove away. The people there were so kind and went out and got him, took him to the Strafford’s vet office. He was chipped so they were able to call us and get him back to us.”

So far, more than 250,000 people have watched the happy reunion online. And watching the reunited family in person, is even more touching.

Mariah says, “it was a hard seven months but we just believed that one day he would be back and here he is!”

If you have a lost pet, be sure to submit them to the Leigh’s Lost and Found facebook page.

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