LAS VEGAS – Judith Monarrez fell to the kitchen floor and cried when the news arrived via email: Gizmo, her pet dog who had been missing for nine years, had been found alive.
Monarrez was 28 years old and living with his parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then 2 years old, walked through a faulty gate in the backyard of his Las Vegas home.
The decade that followed brought many changes. Monarrez, now 37 years old, moved into his own house, earned a master’s degree in English and began his teaching career in higher education. But over the years, Monarrez said, she never stopped trying to find Gizmo.
Now, she was getting in the car to drive across town and meet Gizmo at a veterinary hospital. Monarrez was later told that a woman found the dog, now 11 years old, and dropped him off at the vet, where they scanned his microchip, triggering the email notification that sent Monarrez to his knees, crying.
Within hours of receiving the email on July 17, Gizmo was back in his owner’s arms. Monarrez called it “a miracle.”
“Hindsight is 2020,” she said. “I’m so glad I registered his microchip.”
Their reunion occurred at the same time as a new Las Vegas city ordinance requiring pet owners to be microchipped your cats and dogs will come into effect on August 1st.
Monarrez said Thursday that Gizmo’s first week back home brought mixed emotions.
It’s clear, she said, that the nine years they spent apart also changed Gizmo. The 8-pound Chihuahua became afraid of shadows, heights and birds, and Gizmo was now limping. Monarrez said both of the dog’s eyes were also severely infected and that it was missing some teeth.
“Even though he looked so different, when I looked into his eyes, I immediately knew it was Gizmo,” Monarrez said, recalling the moment they reunited at the vet’s office. “And as soon as I said his name, he tilted his head and didn’t stop looking at me.”
Although Monarrez and her parents can’t stop thinking about what Gizmo endured after his disappearance, their focus now, she said, is on resolving his health issues and “showering him with all the love we held all those years.” “
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