'I Needed Her Just As Much As She Needed Me': Woman Finds Missing Dog After 17 Months

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A toy poodle goes missing from a front yard in the north metro. Amazingly, nearly a year and a half later little Zoey is back home.

For 17 months, the search consumed Karen Kissner.

"I couldn't stop," Kissner said.

From that August day in 2018 when Zoey never made it back in the doggy door with her four other friends from her fenced in front yard in Hugo.

Two days later, someone spotted the tiny apricot toy poodle a few miles away on 35E.

"She was running south, picked her up put her in the truck and drove north with her," Kissner said.

Then, the trail went cold. Karen plastered hundreds of posters throughout the metro and kept the story out there on social media.

"A lot of people told me Karen give it up you're not going to get her. I said I feel in my heart I'm going to get her back," Kissner said.

But, when the call came last week that a man more than an hour away had spotted her along a road in Hinckley and drove her to the Woodbury Humane Society she struggled to believe it.

"They said they don't open until noon, I said I will be there at noon and be taking my baby home," Kissner said.

Matted with snarls, Zoey could barely open her eyes.

"She's exhausted," Kissiner said.

She had a bad ear infection and lost weight. Still, she won't let Karen out of her sight.

"She wants to know where I am she's not going to lose me again. Right, Zoey?" Kissner asked.

It's remains to be seen where Zoey has been. But, someone did chip her and not register the numbers yet. Leading rescue groups to believe someone was trying to breed Zoey before realizing she was too old.

"I wish she had a chip that tells us what she went through because I know she's been through a lot," Kissner said.

A lot in 17 months that Karen now hopes will give others with missing pets hope they'll come home.

"I had to bring her home. I needed her just as much as she needed me," Kissner said.

The Retrievers, is an all-volunteer team that helped in the search for Zoey. They work about 700 cases of missing pets in Minnesota every year. They always remind pet owners to chip their animals.

If you'd like to help in their efforts, please click here.