After two years, a pitbull-rottweiler mix named Kovu is finally back in the home where he belongs.
Kovu was adopted by Aisha Nieves of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, when he was just 7 weeks old. He was a beloved member of her family until May 2019 when he slipped out of a broken part of the fence and disappeared.
“I found out he was gone when I came home later that day and he wasn’t there to run to me and give me kisses like he usually did,” Aisha said. “I searched the whole house and couldn’t find him, then looked around Allentown for a good week or so and still couldn’t find him.”
Aisha feared the worst. She’d formed a tight bond with the pup over the years, and she worried about his safety day and night. “I was crying, thinking the worst, thinking somebody kidnapped or hurt him,” she explained. “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.”
Two years later, she finally felt ready to welcome a new dog into her life. She was scrolling through the adoptable canines on Lehigh County Humane Society’s adoption site when suddenly she saw a familiar face.
“I happened to be on the Lehigh County Humane Society adoption site, looking through pictures, when my phone just froze on this one picture and I just stared,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wait, that can’t be him.'”
That’s when she spotted a tiny scar over his eye. She’d been there when he got that scar. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my baby, that’s Kovu!'”
She quickly called the humane society and shared her story. They told her that back in 2019, Kovu had been picked up on the street and brought to the shelter. He had been renamed “Ash” and kept at the humane society for four months before being adopted by another family.
“On June 12 of this year, the family returned, stating they were facing possible eviction and needed to surrender him,” said Deirdre Snyder, LCHS’ director of development. “We accepted him and waived the surrender fee. Kovu was in good health.”
This time, Kovu only had to stay at the shelter for six days before Aisha came to rescue him for the second time.
The dog mom said she was nervous before reuniting with Kovu, afraid he wouldn’t recognize her after two years apart. “I sat there, waiting for them to bring him out. Then, something made me look up and I locked eyes with him and saw him wagging his tail.”
Staff members at the humane society said there was no doubt in their mind that Kovu recognized his mama. “Upon seeing his long-lost mom, the previously shy and scared Kovu let out the most excited squeal we have ever heard!” they wrote on Facebook.
“Now that he’s back home, I feel whole again,” Aisha said. “All that time he was gone, I felt like a piece of me was missing. Never did I stop thinking about him or wondering if he was being treated well wherever he was. I’d look at Facebook pictures of us together and start crying. I just wanted my baby back. And now he is.”
Aisha and her sons are giddy to have their good boy back where he belongs! It really sounds like it was meant to be, doesn’t it?
Watch their incredible reunion in the video below, and share this story to welcome Kovu home.
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