9-Year-Old Girl Mourning Her Father’s Death Is Reunited with the Missing Dog He Bought Her
A family in Roselle Park, New Jersey, was already grieving an unimaginable loss when another heartbreak compounded their pain — the beloved dog a father had bought for his 9-year-old daughter had gone missing.
But thanks to a viral social media campaign, a vigilant pet sitter and a determined police officer, the little girl was reunited with her Cockapoo named Major on Wednesday, March 25, according to ABC7 / Eyewitness News.
A Father’s Gift
Javon, 40, of Roselle Park, had purchased Major as a birthday gift for his daughter. Before traveling abroad, he left the dog with a pet sitter named Grace Reyes, with plans to pick up Major on Friday, March 20.
But Javon died unexpectedly while on vacation and never returned home.
His family was left reeling — not only from the sudden loss of Javon but from the realization that they had no contact information for Reyes and no way of knowing where Major was. To the family, the dog was missing.
A Desperate Search
Javon’s loved ones launched a search campaign for Major, spreading the word across social media in hopes of tracking down the dog.
“We were dealing with the loss of a brother, a father, and a friend,” Javon’s best friend David told ABC7 on March 24.
“So, I think dealing with that and then also the loss of potentially our dog Major, I think that’s just really going to, you know, put us in a different space. But if we are able to find out more, just make things just a little, a little better than it is right now.”
What the family didn’t know was that on the other side of the search, Reyes was looking for them too.
The Pet Sitter’s Side
Reyes said she had no idea what had happened to Javon. All she knew was that communication had suddenly gone silent.
“[Major] was supposed to be picked up on Friday and so the messages stopped going through on Thursday and I started getting worried,” Reyes said.
She had been searching social media trying to find the family when her aunt spotted a viral post about a missing dog and reached out to her on March 24.
“Isn’t this the dog that you take care of all the time, Major?” her aunt asked.
“My heart dropped finding out what happened, finding out that his family was worried sick about wondering where Major was,” Reyes told ABC7.
Police Step In
Once contact was made, Major was taken to the Roselle Park Police Department, where Officer Vincent Picarelli helped coordinate the dog’s return.
“Thanks to Eyewitness News and other friends and family that blasted this all over social media, they were able to locate where Major actually was,” Picarelli said.
Roselle Park Police Chief Dominick Frino said the case struck a personal chord.
“I’m a father of two daughters and this just broke my heart when I heard this story,” Frino said.
“We have Officer Picarelli and I told him yesterday we have to this young puppy for this 9-year-old daughter,” Frino said. “He told me ‘Chief, don’t worry about it’ and he said ‘I’ll have this dog for you by the end of the day.’”
A Bittersweet Reunion
On Wednesday, March 25, the 9-year-old girl was reunited with Major. Though the family was still mourning Javon’s death, having the dog safely home offered a small but meaningful measure of comfort.
Major — a birthday gift from a father who would never come home — was back where he belonged: with the little girl Javon had bought him for.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
