12 Years After She Vanished, Missing Dog Suddenly Pops Up

Twelve years after her dog disappeared, a Chicago-area woman has her back. Vanessa Antonino tells NBC Chicago that back then she was sometimes living out of her car, with her 4-year-old dog, Flor, always by her side. She said one day she left Flor in the vehicle as usual while she went to work on Chicago's North Side, and when she returned, the Chihuahua had vanished. Antonino, now a mother of four, kept Flor's photo and told her kids the dog was their long-lost "big sister." The mystery of what had happened to Flor broke recently, when a disaster-relief worker from Louisiana spotted Flor along a road in storm-battered Gary, Indiana, and brought her to local animal control.

A group called Microchip Hunters traced Flor's outdated microchip info and somehow still managed to link her to Antonino, leading to an emotional reunion at the Evanston Animal Shelter; ABC 7 Chicago has video. "I just bawled. I broke down completely," Antonino said at seeing her furry friend after all these years, per NBC. A volunteer at the shelter tells People: "It's amazing, especially for a dog, like 12 years later to get back to their owner. That's just unheard of." The case is being held up as a reminder to chip pets, and to keep the data current.