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Texas Dog Reunited with Family in Michigan After 6 Years

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Just a puppy when he never came home, Texas dog Leo was finally reunited with the Hinton family after six years apart.

On Friday, June 10, Leo was finally reunited with his long-lost family after he ran away six years ago. Between Ingram and Hunt sat Camp Flaming Arrow, which the Hintons ran. In August 2010, as the Kerrville Daily Times reported, Leo followed the other dogs around the camp, but he never came back. Allison Hinton said of her sweet pup, “We put flyers everywhere, all of us were searching, but we never found him.”

The family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2014, and thought that Leo met an unfortunate end. It always weighed heavy on their hearts. However, Kathleen Appling, Hinton’s mother, got a surprising phone call on May 11. Leo was found near Texas 39 by the Hunt Store and someone had taken him to check for a microchip. Bill Hinton, when he heard, told the KDT, “I couldn’t believe the phone call….I wish that chip had GPS in it. I would love to have known if he was really in the wild that long.”

The family has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for medical bills and to help transport him to his sweet family in Michigan. Leo still loves cherries and is one lucky dog.