Emotional Support Dog Missing for 3 Months Reunited with 4-Year-Old Boy

One lost dog has happily made it home to his 4-year-old owner after having been missing for three months.

Mathis, who has the rare genetic disorder Coffin-Lowry syndrome, has been without his therapy dog, Macks, since May, when the pooch escaped from the family’s yard in Potomac, Maryland.

Mathis’ mom, Sandrine Hildembrand, said at the time that Macks’ absence had a notable effect on her son’s well-being.

“He’s a lot more anxious. I can tell. I can feel it,” she told New York station NBC4 back in June.

The family took every measure to find Macks, from posting fliers and offering a $1,000 reward for the French bulldog/Beagle mix to filing a police report. Although police believed that Macks had been picked up by a landscaping crew in the area, the search for the pup remained unsuccessful in June and July.

As the summer wore on, the Hildembrand family became more and more desperate to find Macks, and nearly gave up hope, the Montgomery County Police said in a press release on Tuesday.

But all that changed on August 23, when the family was contacted about the reward and the Montgomery police facilitated the meeting, “in an abundance of caution and a strong desire to bring Macks home,” according to the press release.

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“Ensuring additional heartbreak did not occur to this young boy weighed heavy on the officers,” the release said.

Both the police department and the family wish “to thank all those involved with reuniting Macks with his best friend,” the release concluded.

RELATED: Dog Missing for 5 Years Reunited with Her Family in North Carolina: ‘We Could Not Be Happier’

Police have kept the person who returned Macks anonymous, and Montgomery County police spokesman Capt. Tom Jordan said that whatever their motivation was for finally returning Macks, all that matters is that the pup is back with Mathis.

“I’d like to believe it was out of their goodness of their heart, but it may have been the reward money,” Jordan told Washington’s Top News. “We look at the end result, and the end result was reuniting that dog and that kid.”

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