FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ It looks like a story about Florida "beer dogs" that appeared in news stories across the country will end up reuniting a Minnesota woman with her dog who went missing in 2017.
In a Facebook posting last week, Manatee County Animal Services featured the media exposure that came from its collaboration with Shelter Manatee and the Bradenton-based Motorworks Brewing which began selling four packs of canned beer with images of dogs that were available for adoption.
It turns out a woman in Minnesota saw one of those viral news reports and couldn't believe it when a dog on one of the cans looked just like Hazel, her family's dog who disappeared three years ago when they were living in Iowa, Tampa television station WFTS reported.
"I saw one of the dogs on there and I was like, 'oh my gosh that looks like my dog,'" Monica Mathis told the station by telephone.
Further, the dog the shelter had named Day Day has a microchip with Mathis' first name, but her last name had changed since the dog disappeared and the other information was outdated. Additionally, she provided animal care officials with paperwork showing the dog was hers, according to WFTS.
Now, officials are working on a plan to get Hazel back to Mathis in Minnesota.
How the dog went missing from Iowa in 2017 and got to Florida remains a mystery _ and Hazel isn't talking about it.
