‘My best friend.’ Watch this Kentucky woman’s reunion with lost dog after 2 years.
Rebecca Bien had all but given up hope finding her lost dog of two years, Emmy Lou. But after the long separation, the two shared a happy reunion this week in Louisville.
Bien said Emmy Lou, a heeler-border collie mix, is getting used to her two new siblings and remembers all her tricks. The reunion was a euphoric moment between Bien and Emmy Lou, who ran off with a friend’s dog in September 2017.
In the two years that followed Emmy Lou’s escape, there were plenty of false sightings. A Facebook group with more than 750 members in the Louisville area tried to help Bien and John Clay find their dog.
Bien said she received notice that Emmy Lou was spotted around Christmas last month, and on Wednesday she was picked up by Louisville Metro Animal Services. A member of the Facebook group notified Bien of her rescue, she said.
She now lives around two hours away in Franklin, near Nashville, and Bien made it to the Louisville shelter 20 minutes before it closed Wednesday to be reunited with the dog. Emmy Lou was found with a collar, leading Bien to believe she had a home at some point in the last two years.
The magical moment of Bien and Emmy Lou being back together was captured on video.
Bien said nothing compares to the feeling of being reunited when she had accepted that Emmy Lou probably wasn’t returning.
“She’s my best friend,” Bien said. “She calmed my severe anxiety and depression and with the year anniversary of my dad’s passing approaching, I can’t help but feel like he brought her home.”
Bien thanked the people on Facebook — some of whom were strangers — who she said spent countless nights searching alleys or roaming streets trying to find Emmy Lou. Bien hopes to return to Louisville in March to meet up at a dog park with everyone who helped along the way.
Clay, who was also Emmy Lou’s owner, said Bien brought Emmy Lou to see him in Nashville, where he was recording a record in a studio. He was able to spend a short time with the dog and hopes to reconnect with her soon.
“I just sat on the ground for 15 to 20 minutes, happy laughing in a way that could only be described as hysterical disbelief,” Clay said. “She wasn’t super responsive to me, which was definitely hurtful, but who knows what she’s been through all this time. Twenty-eight months is a haul.”
Emmy Lou is thin, but eating well, and she has now been chipped, Bien said. She recommends all pets to be microchipped and to bring lost pets to animal shelters so they have a chance of going home,
“She seems so happy to be back home, yet understandably tired,” Bien wrote on Facebook. “Obviously she’s aged a bit but my God she’s beautiful. She remembers all of her tricks. She still sleeps right next to me as my little spoon. Y’all, she’s perfect.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 3:04 PM with the headline "‘My best friend.’ Watch this Kentucky woman’s reunion with lost dog after 2 years.."