After having gone missing nearly a year ago, a dog named Kimbo has finally been returned to his rightful owners.
Last June, pit bull Kimbo escaped from his yard in Hollister, California.
“I’ve had him since he was about 8 weeks old,” said owner Ramsey Ortega.
Ramsey searched high and low for his five-year-old dog, but he didn’t find him. Just this past Monday, he was driving down the road, and passed another car. A dog stuck its head out the window, and Ramsey knew in an instant it was Kimbo.
“I just pulled in right next to him, got out of my truck and I went up to the guy and introduced myself,” Ramsey said. “The dog saw me, he just started getting real excited, wagging his tail and started whimpering a little bit.”
But getting him back was not so easy. The driver claimed to be dogsitting for his sister.
“The story he gave me just sounded really scattered. So I didn’t really believe too much of it,” Ramsey explained. “So I told him I was just going to call animal control and do everything the right way.”
The police seized the dog as evidence. Ramsey had filed a missing report with animal control wen Kimbo first disappeared, and this was all the proof the Hollister Animal Shelter needed to return him to his family. Ramsey even showed shelter staff some of the tricks he had taught Kimbo.
“It’s a small town, so I was hoping I would run into him, I thought I saw him once,”Ramsey said.
The woman who had Kimbo, Elizabeth Gonzales, has been cited for failing to report the found dog and for keeping him.
“I tell people he’s like a son to me. I mean I feel like I got him back, everything is back together now,” Ramsey concluded.
