WASHINGTON – A Houston area woman has been reunited with her lost dog more than a year after he vanished from her former D.C. home.

Corey, a shih tzu, escaped from Alicia McIntosh’s backyard in fall 2014 when she was living in D.C. In October 2015, McIntosh moved to the Houston area, thinking she would never see her dog again.

A Montgomery County Animal Services officer found Corey in front of a Safeway in Bethesda, Maryland on Jan. 19, and brought him to the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center.  After the shelter scanned him for a microchip, they were able to find his owner.

“[I] started crying,” McIntosh said. “I called everyone I knew,”

McIntosh couldn’t fly to Maryland to claim Corey until last week due to the winter weather.

When reunited, Corey jumped into her arms and licked her face. McIntosh says she had “doggie” clothes in the car for Corey and a “doggie” cake waiting for him in Houston.

“Ms. McIntosh is a special person to come all this way for her family member and Corey is one lucky dog, “said Spencer Kelly, Animal Care Supervisor. “Days like today are the reason I come to work.”