Beloved Chihuahua Reunited With Owner After 8 Years

— -- A beloved family pet will be reunited with his owner in Oklahoma tomorrow, eight years after he went missing in a suburb of Reno, Nevada.

Katrina Zmaila told ABC News today that her family's Chihuahua disappeared from the secure backyard of a neighbor's home in 2008. Zmaila said her family did everything they could to find the 2-year-old pup, calling animal control, local vets and putting up signs.

They eventually came to the sad conclusion that he might have been dog-napped.

"He had a microchip and a collar with his tags and information on it," Zmaila said. "If he did get out he should have been returned. We put signs up, he wouldn't have gotten far."

"I was mostly afraid, because there is dog fighting in Reno, I was afraid that maybe someone had taken him," she added.

Zmaila said the family got Dash when he was just 5 months old.

"He was always just a really happy little dog. He was not you're typical, yappy, scared Chihuahua," she remembered. "He was a total cuddler. His nickname was 'boyfriend' because he was such a snugly dog."

She said she was shocked when she found out that he turned up about two weeks ago, wandering the streets of Reno, where he was picked up by local animal control. Zmaila received a letter in the mail notifying her that animal control officers had located Dash by running his microchip through a national database.

"When I opened up the letter it was shocking to me, and then I was afraid," Zmaila said. "I immediately called animal control, and they said that he had been transferred to their shelter next door, which is the only no-kill shelter in Nevada."

Dash is now en route to Oklahoma, where he will be reunited with her tomorrow.