Family, dog reunited after nearly 3 years apart

MIAMI (WSVN) - A remarkable reunion took place between a lost dog and his family — years in the making.

A South Florida woman chipped in after finding the wayward pooch this week.

Her kind act set the incredible story in motion.

7News cameras captured the moment two strangers, who were destined to meet, saw each other for the first time.

Brook Whittington used to live in Miami in 2017.

She was housesitting her mother’s dog, Bendito, who was living in Hawaii at the time.

“I had given him a bath, and he was in the backyard, and then someone stole him,” Whittington said.

Whittington eventually moved to Atlanta.

She recently received a call she never expected.

“My first question was, ‘Do you want your dog back?'” said Ana Cristina De Sa who found the dog.

De Sa is a dog mom herself. She was at Stern’s Park on Monday when she noticed the dog.

“I saw him from the corner of my eyes and he was trying to approach us,” she said.

She said she knew he needed care.

De Sa said she did not want anything to happen to Bendito because the park is near the highway, so she took him home.

The next day, she went to see if he had a microchip. That is how she tracked down the owners.

“I do feel confident that this was for me to live through this and be part of this,” De Sa said.

Whittington immediately drove down from Georgia to reunite with Bendito.

She Facetimed her mother immediately, who can’t wait to have her best friend back.

“She’s happy. She’s really, really happy,” Whittington said. “She wants to know, like, what happened. He just comes back magically.”

Even though it’s been three years, Whittington said she still recognized Bendito.

“Mhm, a little bit, yeah,” she said. “Personality never changes.”

“That was a magical moment for me, because I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m the catalyst of impacting lives, and they were so grateful,” said De Sa.

Whittington and Bendito will leave for Charlotte on Thursday where he will be dropped off at her mother’s house.