OCALA, Fla. – A Marion County family is preparing for a reunion after their missing dog was found more than 1,000 miles away in New York nearly two months after disappearing.
News 6 first told you about Apollo in May after his family reached out through the News 6 Neighborhood Network for help finding the 13-year-old dog.
Apollo disappeared April 25 after surveillance video showed a white car stop near the family’s home. The family said a woman got out, asked neighbors if the dog belonged to them, and drove away after they said no.
At the time, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office determined no crime had occurred.
This week, Apollo’s owner, Vera Josey, received an email from the dog’s microchip company, HomeAgain, notifying her that Apollo’s microchip had been scanned at an animal shelter in Hempstead on Long Island.
“As I’m speaking to her, I’m noticing the accent,” Josey said. “She said New York. So Apollo was in New York.”
Shelter staff told the family Apollo had been found wandering the streets by a good Samaritan, who took him to a local police station before he was transferred to the shelter.
Josey said she was also surprised to learn Apollo had been wearing a tag with a different name.
“She goes, ‘But he has a tag called Yuri,’” Josey said. “And I’m like, no, his name’s not Yuri.”
The family plans to reunite with Apollo Friday. Josey’s husband will fly to New York while a relative who lives nearby picks Apollo up from the shelter and meets him at John F. Kennedy International Airport for the trip home.
The family estimates flights, shelter fees and other costs to bring Apollo home will total around $1,000 and has started a GoFundMe to help cover the expenses.
News 6 also reached back out to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office to ask whether Apollo being found in New York changes its earlier determination that no crime had occurred. As of publication, the agency had not responded.
“I still would like to know who that person was that took him because it’s costing us to get him back,” Josey said.
Despite the unanswered questions, the family says they’re simply grateful Apollo is coming home.
“I’m just excited,” Josey said. “And I can’t wait for him to get home.”