Viral Facebook Group Helps Reunite Owner With Dog After 9 Months | Happily TV
An owner and her lost dog couldn’t hide their excitement as the pair were finally reunited after nine months apart. In the emotional video, Elissa Battista, from Fairfield, Connecticut, let out screams of joy as her Boston terrier, Fisher, instantly recognized her and jumped all over his human. It had been a tough 290 days for Elissa, who discovered Fisher had run away in summer 2020. According to Elissa, 30, she and her family were at their vacation home in Ocean City, Maryland, on July 4, when a group of people setting off fireworks were believed to have scared Fisher. The incident took place around 1.30am, Elissa said, but it wasn't until the following morning she noticed her pooch had escaped out of a screen door and into the open. After contacting the police, beach patrol, animal control and her dog’s microchipping company, Elissa started a Facebook page ‘Find Fisher!’ which grew to more than 8,000 members strong. Initially, she posted daily updates to the Facebook group as a means of spreading the word - but as hope waned over time, those posts became weekly and then monthly. But thanks to the growing group membership, Elissa would still get messages with photos every day asking if it was Fisher, only for her to have to say that, sadly, it was not. Elissa said she typed the denial message so many times that eventually her phone started to predict the response she was about to give. But then, on April 20, a member sent a screenshot from another group, which she instantly recognized as Fisher from his markings. Fisher was found roaming the streets of the Baltimore area wearing a collar his owners had not given him. After Elissa’s husband, Matthew, 30, had spoken to the finders and helped arrange for a rescue to scan Fisher’s microchip, family friends in Annapolis then collected the dog while Elissa headed to their house.