Alexa Milan Boschini

PITTSBORO — She’s been through a lot in her 20 years. About five years ago she was shot by a hunter, she went missing on Christmas and this month she was reunited with her family thanks to a few good Samaritans, the Internet and a little luck. If anyone can be called resilient, it’s a little dog named Katie.

Pittsboro resident Pam Ard’s grandparents gave her Katie and her litter-mate Missy 20 years ago. The Ard family and the Chihuahua/Feist mixes had been inseparable until Katie disappeared on Christmas night 2009. The Ards let the dogs out to use the bathroom, and when they went to let them back inside, Katie was nowhere to be found. The family searched all over their farm and contacted neighbors, but no one could find her.

“At the time, we thought she was so old that she’d gone away to die,” Ard said.

The family handed out fliers and kept checking with neighbors, but the more time passed, the more devastated they became at the prospect of never seeing Katie again or not giving her a proper burial. But in early July, more than seven months after Katie went missing, something happened that Ard said she can only describe as a miracle.

The fiancee of Ard’s son was searching on Petfinder.com for a dog to adopt when she came across a Chihuahua/Feist listed as Sasha with a striking resemblance to the Ards’ lost dog.

“She called (my son) at work and told him there was a dog on the site that looked like Missy,” Ard said. “He said, ‘It actually looks like Katie.’”

Someone had found Katie and taken her to the Chatham County Animal Shelter. On the last day the shelter could hold Katie before she would be euthanized, a staff member called Melissa Taylor, a volunteer with Chatham Animal Rescue and Education with a soft spot for older dogs. On Jan. 6, Taylor picked her up and began fostering her for CARE. A vet estimated that Katie was about 9 years old, 11 years younger than her actual age.

“She was wonderful,” Taylor said. “I couldn’t say enough good things about her. She was the perfect dog.”

After Ard’s son shared his suspicions that Sasha could be Katie, Ard immediately called CARE, left messages and filled out adoption forms — anything to speed up the process of finding out if Katie was alive.

“I was so anxious about it that I called a friend who works with CARE to see if she could make things happen quicker,” Ard said.

The Ards arranged to meet with Taylor the next morning. They brought Missy with them, compared pictures and searched for bumps and scars that would tell them if Sasha was Katie. Ard said she looked like Katie except that a black mole on her leg was missing. Taylor said CARE had a mole removed from Katie’s leg during a vet visit.

“No one else would know that except the owner,” Taylor said.

After an emotional reunion, the Ards took Katie home, where she revisited all of her favorite spots and bonded with Missy again.

“It’s divine intervention that we got her back,” Ard said. “I look at Melissa as Katie’s guardian angel.”

Taylor said she could tell Katie was loved and well cared for, and she doesn’t think the Ard family ever gave up on her.

“I don’t think this has ever happened in CARE’s history, and CARE has been around 20 years,” Taylor said. “It was quite amazing on a bunch of different levels.”

Since Katie had lived on the property for so long, Ard said the family never imagined that she would wander off. She said they also didn’t think to check with a shelter because they live in a relatively isolated area, surrounded by farms and dirt roads. Katie has since been microchipped, and the family plans to have all of their other animals microchipped as well.

“They’re not really our pets — they’re our family,” Ard said. “It’s like a second chance, having that extra time to love her.”