That’s one Lucky dog.
The white and brown Shih Tzu that was snatched from the Miami-Dade Animal Services Shelter by a couple on Tuesday reappeared on Saturday, safe and sound, as another couple brought the 1-year-old puppy back to the shelter.
“Hey, Lucky. He’s lucky he found a home,” said Lila Klein, who spoke with reporters Saturday. “Yes, his name goes well with him,” she said, picking him up from the floor.
Klein, who owns The Peruvian Kitchen in North Miami Beach, said a woman brought Lucky to her restaurant.
She said, “Maybe you can take care of this dog that is walking in the street without (an) owner…and I saw him in the news, and I thought, ‘this is the dog that you’re looking for – the dog that was given to me two days ago,” Klein recounted.
Luis Mendoza of Miami-Dade Animal Services said Lucky was given to Klein and her husband Frank at the restaurant by a woman who told them “that this dog needs a good home, but we don’t know if that’s the individual who took the dog originally.”
In surveillance video publicized Friday, a couple is seen holding Lucky, then calmly walking out the door of the animal shelter.
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A tricolor Rat Terrier mix named Andy who was walked out of the shelter by two other people on Tuesday remains unaccounted for.
Mendoza said Miami-Dade Animal Services is “not 100 percent positive” that the Shih Tzu seen Saturday is the same one who disappeared Tuesday, “but it looks like it’s pretty close to – as far as it can get.”
Now, the Kleins are going through the process of adopting the dog. Mendoza said they already took it to a vet and had it groomed.
“He’s going to be well-fed,” Lila Klein said. “Filet mignon and everything.”
This story has been corrected to reflect that the Shih Tzu reappeared Saturday, not the Rat Terrier, which is still missing.
