A more than three-year absence has finally come to an end, as a man and his dog have been reunited.

Shelton said his Boston Terrier was stolen from his front porch on July 18, 2022, and since then, he has done everything to find Béa.

“I left from my porch and I went to my car to get something or put something in my car,” he told KNBC. more than three-year absence has finally come to an end,

He went the traditional route, looking for her and posting signs around the neighborhood. Family and friends would contact him, thinking they saw Béa, but it was never her.

“If I’m being honest, after a couple of years, the hope started to fade—especially this past year,” Shelton told People magazine. “It gets harder to hold onto something you can’t see or prove is still out there.”

Shelton also started a business, using Béa’s face as the logo, hoping someone would recognize her.

But this week, someone saw a post from animal rescue Wags and Walks, and this time it was Béa.

The organization said they rescued her from a shelter last week. She had been found as a stray. No one has figured out what else happened to her since 2022.

Shelton told People he knew it was her.

“When I saw the Instagram post, I broke down in tears, before even reading what the message said,” he said. “I knew instantly it was Béa.”

“She has such a distinct face and presence… the way her ears fold, flop, and somehow still stand up at the same time is completely unique to her. And her eyes—those big, expressive looks—she’s always had a way of communicating through them.”

“As I walked back to my car… I saw her starting to walk toward me—and in that moment, I just broke down,” he said. “It didn’t feel real.”

Béa was a bit apprehensive at first, he said.

“She greeted me with happiness, but almost like I was a stranger,” he told People. “I don’t think she fully recognized me in that moment—and honestly, it felt like maybe she was a little hurt or confused about why I’d been gone so long.”

But that changed quickly.

“The second we pulled up, she jumped out of the car, walked straight up the stairs, and went right to my apartment like she’d never left,” Shelton said of the moment when they got home. “That’s when it hit me—she remembered.”

It nearly wasn’t a happy ending for Shelton. Someone had an appointment to meet Béa, who was known at the shelter as Kit, but canceled.

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