Dog That Disappeared Last Year From Texas Back Yard Finally Turns Up...but Not Exactly Down the Block

GALVESTON, Texas (TheBlaze/AP) — A dog that vanished from his Texas yard last year has been returned home after turning up in a central Indiana city some 1,100 miles away.

Galveston resident JoeAnn Navarro, 69, said her two pit bulls apparently were stolen from her backyard in May.

Navarro thought she'd never see either dog again, but the Kokomo Humane Society called her a week ago to say a stranger had dropped off her year-old pit bull Blue at its shelter about 40 miles north of Indianapolis.

“I’m so happy I can’t express how grateful I am,” Navarro told the Galveston County Daily News. “I’ll be so excited so see my girl home.”

Blue, on the way home. (Image source: Galveston Daily News)

A microchip implanted in Blue led to Navarro. Three men, including two retired Galveston County sheriff's deputies, drove to Indiana to pick up the pooch.

“We loaded (Blue) in the truck, and when I went to go finish up the paperwork, she barked at me as if to say, ‘Let’s get going before (the shelter) changes its mind,” Ricky Mitchell, one of the retired deputies, texted.

On Saturday, the Daily News reported the three arrived at the Navarro house and, for the first time in eight months, Blue was home.