ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida family is reunited with its pet eight months after the animal was left with a veterinarian to be euthanized over painful tumors growing in her ears.

Candy, a Maltese belonging to the Oaks family, had tumors in her ears that the family could not afford to treat.

The decision to end the dog's suffering prompted Angela Oaks to travel to the Mayfair Animal Hospital in Winter Park.

"First of all, (I) sat in the parking lot for a long time because I didn't know if that's what I wanted to do," Oaks said. "I just felt bad because I couldn't afford the surgery, and I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do."

Oaks decided to sign the papers, and she paid a fee to have Candy euthanized.

"I told my daughter she was in doggy Heaven," Oaks said.

However, eight months after the dog was left to be euthanized, Oaks received a call from the veterinarian, Dr. Peggy Stubblefield.

"She told you they never euthanized Candy?" Local 6's Jessica Sanchez said.

"Yes," Oaks said.

Oaks found out that Candy was being kept alive.

Stubblefield offered only a limited explanation of why the dog was kept alive against its owner's wishes, Sanchez reported.

"I can say when I see a dog that is vivacious, happy, wriggling, coming up to everybody in the room, my first impulse is to keep it alive as long as possible," Stubblefield said.

Stubblefield said she tried to contact the Oaks family to propose a treatment plan for Candy.

"We tried by telephoning them by the number on the euthanasia request, and that's all I can say, I can't say anything else," Stubblefield said.

Local 6 reported that a fill-in veterinarian at Mayfair took pity on Candy, performed the surgery to fix her ears and rescued her from the hospital.

Stubblefield then contacted Oaks and told her Candy was alive, claiming her dog was stolen by another vet, Local 6 reported.

"So, I am like, 'She got stolen?'" Oaks said. "It was very overwhelming."

Local 6 obtained a letter that Stubblefield's attorney sent to the veterinarian.

The letter said Stubblefield was the owner of Candy and she not only wanted to practice a surgical procedure on her but she wanted to personally study Candy's recovery.

"The day I put her down I didn't know if it was right or not," Oaks said. "And the eight-and-a-half months she was (probably) sitting there and wondering why I left her there."

The vet who rescued Candy reunited the dog with Oaks and her daughter eight months after they made the decision to put her to sleep, Sanchez reported.

"Is there anything Peggy Stubblefield could say or do to make this better?" Sanchez asked.

"No," Oaks said. "Absolutely not."

The Oaks family has not filed an official complaint against Stubblefield.

However, any veterinarian who accepts payment for a service, such as euthanasia, is legally bound to follow the pet owner's wishes. If the vet doesn't, he or she could be charged with fraud and have his or her license revoked.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.