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HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Like the majority of dogs who end up at the Harris County Animal Shelter, Penelope had no identification and no owner coming forward within three days to claim her. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t loved.
“She was about six months old when I got her and I found out after one day she was deaf,” said Penelope’s owner Mandy Lyons. “It didn’t bother me, I loved her anyway. I didn’t care.”
It looked as if December 2017 would be the last time Penelope and Lyons would lay eyes on each other.
The pointer boxer mix ran off after someone mistakenly left the back gate open at Lyons' home.
“She came into Harris County Animal Shelter in January and she was with the shelter for about a week then went into our foster program,” said Kerry McKeel, senior communications director at HCAS.
While kind strangers worked to find Penelope a new home, her human mother had all but given up on ever finding the puppy.
“I was afraid she got ran over because she can’t hear,” said Lyons. “I really didn’t expect to find her because she was deaf.”
After being rescued from the shelter, Penelope spent a couple of weeks with shelter volunteer and foster pet parent Giselle Krohin.
“We actually named her Kiara because that’s my dog’s name and she looked like my dog,’ said Krohin.
The next stop for Penelope was St. Cloud, Minn.
“We drive down every month to bring a load of dogs to Minnesota," said Lexi Johnson with Ruff Start Rescue. "She was on our van to come on up. She’s one of the top dogs we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”
But weeks turned into months and nobody wanted to adopt Penelope. Maybe she knew fate had cards it wasn’t ready to show.
As it turns out, Lyons' husband was recently looking at Facebook when he came across videos of lost dogs and found Penelope.
Ruff Start Rescue...to the rescue.
There’s not a dry eye in the house as Lyons and Penelope fall to the ground kissing at each other.
“It’s an incredible story,” said McKeel. “What are the odds of her finding her way back to Texas from Minnesota without any identification? Thanks to social media, she was lucky.”
“Oh I’m shaking, I’m so happy,” said Lyons.