Joshua Munn collapsed when he was reunited with his American bulldog, Tiny, 57 days after the dog was stolen from his Brooklyn home.
A Brimbank council ranger responding to a lost poodle reported in St Albans last Wednesday said he recognised Tiny from a photo published in Star Weekly on June 4.
Mr Munn was summoned by the ranger to a house in Main Road, but having received many false sightings he was wary of raising his hopes.
When Tiny saw his owner, he ran straight into his arms. “I collapsed on the ground and he ran straight over to me and just licked me half to death,” Mr Munn says.
Mr Munn thanked friends Jenny McDonald and Narelle McKenzie, who set up a Facebook page, ‘Help Find Tiny Please’.
“I had over 1300 hits on that [Wednesday] night alone,” Mr Munn said.
“As soon as I put up that I found him and everybody just went berserk.’’
Mr Munn said he was also grateful for those who encouraged him when it seemed as though he’d lost his dog forever.
He said Tiny was in good health and hadn’t left his side since his return.
Mr Munn said the St Albans couple provided varying accounts of how they came to have Tiny, ranging from buying him online to finding him on the freeway.
As reported by Star Weekly, a next-door neighbour said they saw Tiny being grabbed from the driveway of Mr Munn’s Brooklyn home on May 17. The theft has been reported to police. Three attempted dog thefts in Spotswood were reported on social media the same week Tiny went missing.
Hobsons Bay’s Inspector Richard Paterson said police were not aware of those cases but were investigating the thefts of a Staffordshire-cross and two Maltese shih-tzus from Laverton in April and an attempted dog theft in the same suburb in May.
He said no dog thefts had been reported to police in the past month.
Anyone with information is urged to phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
