A woman was reunited with her pit bull Thursday months after he disappeared and weeks after he was discovered starving in an Arkansas home.
Lyla Ketcher became teary-eyed as a volunteer brought her dog, Boomer Sooner, into the lobby of the Texarkana Animal Care and Adoption Center, the Texarkana Gazette reported.
“I feel like it’s an inadequate word to say thank you,” Ketcher was quoted as telling Animal Services Director Charles Lokey.
Boomer, as he's more commonly known, was one of three dogs rescued in September from a Texarkana home that Lokey has previously referred to as "a little house of hell."
According to the newspaper, which cited law enforcement documents, the pit bull was found starving, dehydrated and infested with parasites.
Three months before his rescue, Ketcher had reportedly left Boomer restrained in her Ashdown yard to pick up her children from school. When she returned, her dog was nowhere to be found.
The Gazette reported that Ketcher found new hope when a friend showed her a photo the animal shelter had posted to Facebook.
During a visit to the shelter, Ketcher called out Boomer’s name. The dog then managed to open the latch of his enclosure and ran to Ketcher, according to the newspaper.
Ketcher was allowed to take her pit bull back home under the condition that she bring him for any evidentiary purposes in the animal cruelty case.
Three people who were living in the Texarkana residence have been charged.