He was devastated to lose his dog, 8 years later, a message turned his world upside down

Life has a way of bringing back what we thought was lost forever, and for Paul Guilbeault, that meant an emotional reunion with his beloved lost dog—one he never stopped hoping to see again. In 2017, while moving from Massachusetts to Arizona, Guilbeault and his family stopped at a rest area near Oklahoma City. That’s when his miniature pinscher, Damian, got spooked, slipped out of his leash, and bolted. As ABC15 Arizona reported, the family searched tirelessly, refusing to give up.

"We searched up until it got dark enough to where my dad forced us to stop searching. We stayed for another week… My dad's like, 'We have to continue on, we're renting a U-Haul,'" Guilbeault recalled. The loss was heartbreaking, as Damian had been more than just a pet—he was a source of comfort and companionship. "That dog got me through a lot of emotional things, family issues and whatnot, just being there for me as a companion," he told ABC News. "I was his everything, as he was mine, and losing him was really, really tough."

Still, he never gave up. For years, he posted about Damian on lost pet pages, holding onto hope that one day, someone would find him.

Then, eight years later, Donna Bentley was driving in Oklahoma City when a small brown dog darted into traffic. She swerved to avoid hitting him and got out of her car. “He turned to me when I picked him up. He was screaming and tried to bite me, but I wasn’t going to put him down and let him get run over,” Bentley said. She brought him to her brother, Rick Chambers, who took him to the vet. The vet scanned for a microchip and instantly Guilbeault’s contact information popped up.

On January 15, Guilbeault and his husband were on their way to Los Angeles to donate clothes for wildfire victims when he got a call from an unknown number. "My Apple Watch gave me a little preview, and it said, ‘Your dog, Damian, has been found,'" he said. "And I was like, ‘What the…?!'" Skeptical, he responded to the message, and quickly realized it was real. He immediately changed course, making a 14-hour detour to Oklahoma City. When he finally saw Damian again, it was a moment he’d never forget. "Not until when I got in front of him that I realized how much of an old man he had become," Guilbeault said. He even shared footage of his reunion with Damian on his Instagram @paulguilbeault.

Damian, now 13, had longer teeth, wobbly legs, and a greying snout, but he recognized Guilbeault immediately. At first, he was shy, but within moments, he was curled up in Guilbeault’s arms. "The whole time he was in my husband's lap, curled up in a ball, and he would turn his head back, looking at me driving, and just have this giant smile," he said. “I feel like he was thinking, ‘Oh my god, is this real? Did I really find him finally?’" Now back home, Damian has settled in like he never left. "When we go there, he gets such a smile on his face. Like, ‘I know where we’re at. I finally made it home,'" Guilbeault said.