When her beloved dog, Kovu, went missing two years ago, Aisha Nieves was devastated. She had loved him since she adopted him at 7 weeks old, and the two were inseparable.
“He was like my baby,” Nieves told WFMZ News. “He would go with me everywhere, he would sleep in my bed.”
But in 2019, Kovu disappeared from Nieves’s yard one day after escaping through a hole in the fence, and a frantic search for him led nowhere.
“I was four months pregnant with my younger son at the time,” Nieves told The Morning Call. “I had a lot of emotions going through me. I was crying, thinking the worst, thinking somebody kidnapped or hurt him. I was just devastated. He was there for me through everything, heartbreaks, ups and downs, and now he was gone. It was so hard to accept.”
For the past two years, Nieves has grieved the loss. She finally decided to start looking for a new dog for her two sons to enjoy.
By chance, Nieves was scrolling through the local Humane Society’s website listing of dogs available for adoption when she saw a golden face she recognized. Noticing a distinctive scar above his right eye, she knew it was Kovu.
“I thought, ‘Wait, that can’t be him.'” she told The Morning Call. Then, I saw the little scar over one eye, the scar from when he got caught in a gate, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my baby, that’s Kovu!'”
She said she was literally shaking when she recognized his face.
She didn’t, however, know if Kovu would recognize her after two years apart. It’s clear from Kovu’s reaction, though, that she needn’t have worried. Watch this:
Watch: Reunited with her lost dog after 2 years
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Kovu had been adopted from the Humane Society a few months after his disappearance, but the family who adopted him had to surrender him when they faced eviction. He’d been back at the shelter for just six days when Nieves spotted him, and when he saw her, he knew her immediately.
“He was screaming, trying to get away from the guy holding him and run to me,” Nieves told The Morning Call. “Then, he just jumped on me and we started kissing and hugging. He sat on my lap. I told him, ‘Yeah, buddy, you’re going home. I’m so sorry this happened. Never again am I losing you.'”
Dogs and humans have 11,000 years of history together, with dogs being the first animals humans took as pets. And some people’s bonds with their doggos are extra tight, which appears to be the case with Kovu and Aisha. He was so excited to see her, and it’s clear that this reunion was just what both of them needed.