It’s been three years since Monica Mathis lost her beloved dog Hazel while living in Iowa—so she’s still in shock, having been reunited with the pup because of a Florida beer can.
The photo of the beer can was part of a recent initiative from Motorworks Brewing company in Bradenton, Florida to feature adoptable dogs from their local animal shelter on their 4-packs of beer.
The initiative has already resulted in several adoptions from the Manatee County Animal Services since it launched last month—but it has also helped to reunite Mathis with her dog from a thousand miles away.
Mathis, who now lives in Minnesota, had been scrolling through her social media feed last week when she caught sight of a Facebook post about the brewery’s shelter dog cans.
One of the cans in particular featured a photo of a dog named Day Day—but it looked exactly like Mathis’s lost dog Hazel.
Although it seemed like a long shot that Hazel could have ended up in Florida, Mathis called the Manatee County Animal Services and asked if they could check the dog’s microchip information.
Sure enough, Day Day was actually Hazel.
The shelter says that they had already attempted to contact Mathis through her microchip information, but her last name and contact phone number had changed since Hazel first went missing.
“I was so lucky. So lucky that I saw that… that she actually got picked and got put on a can, because I would have probably never seen her again had I not seen that,” Mathis told KMSP. “It’s amazing. I am so happy.”
Mathis now hopes that their story will inspire other pet owners to keep their microchip information up to date.
Nobody knows how the dog got to Florida, but the happy ending is Lager than life.
