LAS VEGAS (AP) — Judith Monarrez collapsed on her kitchen floor and wept as the news came in the email: Gizmo, her dog who had been missing for nine years, had been found alive.
Monarrez was 28 and living with her parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then 2 years old, slipped through a broken fence in the backyard of their Las Vegas home.
The decade that followed brought many changes. Monarrez, now 37, moved into her own home, earned a master’s degree in English and began her career as a higher education teacher. But through the years, Monarrez said, she never stopped searching for Gizmo.
Now she got in her car to drive across town to meet Gizmo at an animal hospital. Monarrez was later told that a woman had found the now 11-year-old dog and dropped him off at the vet, where they scanned his microchip, triggering the email notification that sent Monarrez to her knees, crying.
Within hours of receiving that email on July 17, Gizmo was back in his owner’s arms. Monarrez called it “a miracle.”
“In hindsight, it’s 2020,” she said. “I’m so glad I registered his microchip.”
Their reunion comes at the same time that a new Las Vegas ordinance requiring pet owners to microchip their cats and dogs goes into effect on August 1.
Monarrez said Thursday that Gizmo's first week back home brought mixed emotions.
It was clear, she said, that the nine years they had spent apart had changed Gizmo, too. The 8-pound Chihuahua had become afraid of shadows, heights and birds, and Gizmo now limped. Monarrez said both of the dog’s eyes were also badly inflamed, and some of his teeth were missing.
“Even though he looked so different, I knew it was Gizmo when I looked into his eyes,” Monarrez said, recalling the moment they were reunited at the vet. “And as soon as I said his name, he tilted his head and just stared at me.”
While Monarrez and her parents can't stop thinking about what Gizmo went through after he disappeared, their focus now, she said, is on addressing his health issues and “showering him with all the love we've held onto all these years.”
