Miracle Happy Ending: Lost Dog Found Safe, More Than A Year Later

EAST HAMPTON, NY — It's a miracle, pure and simple: A little Yorkie blend, Yogi Bob, from East Hampton was reunited with his heartbroken owner Tuesday — after he'd been missing for more than a year.

Yogi Bob went missing on January 7, 2016, and after months of hoping and searching, Dominique Garstin of East Hampton, had given up hope of ever seeing him again.

"It's so exciting," she told Patch Wednesday. "He's back! I've got my little guy back."

Garstin said she got a Facebook message with photos Monday of a dog who'd been turned in at a Hempstead shelter.

"There happened to be a girl working there who'd been working in East Hampton during the time Yogi Bob went missing. She recognized his photo. She was apprehensive, because it had been so long, no one thought it was possible," she said.

But the resemblance was so strong that the girl sent the photos, thinking, "Maybe there's a chance," Garstin said.

The pup's photo had a number of identifying characteristics, such as little feet that are externally rotated, his tail and one short rib with a "nub," she said.

Most of all, she said, "It was when he sat in my lap, that feeling of his body, that I've carried around so long, that really resonated."

When she went to pick him up Tuesday, Garstin said both she and Yogi Bob took a moment, to look at one another and "accept that we were in the presence of one another."

Her pup's fur was badly matted, she said. "I haven't seen him in almost a year and a half. I thought, 'Is this for real? It's so crazy,'" she said. "But there was a moment when he was sitting in my lap and looked up, and it was as if it just clicked, and he started licking my mouth, and my chin."

Trying to understand how the pair was reunited boggles the mind, Garstin said. "I keep wondering, 'Did someone pick him up and keep him, and then lose him?' Or did he just run all the way there, and never stopped. There are some things we might never know."

Only a five lb. dog, Yogi Bob's ability to fend for himself is nothing short of amazing, she said. "He really did develop survival tactics. He'd been outside for a really long time, due to the condition of his coat. It teaches you not to underestimate our animals — and to always keep hope."

Everyone agrees that Yogi Bob's reappearance is just a miracle, she said. "The people at the shelter said these things just don't happen, the stories don't unfold this way."

But even though he'd been gone for more than a year, Garstin remained true to her dog, never getting another.

"I decided, fairly recently, that I I didn't think I was ever going to have another dog. It was just too painful to lose Yogi Bob. It's such a relief to not have to carry that anymore. He is such a special dog and we have such a special bond, I didn't want to try to replicate that. So I just let it lie."

And when she found out that her story and Yogi Bob's had the happiest of endings, the emotions were overwhelming, Garstin said.

"I was crying. I didn't talk to anyone for two days. All I did was cry. It was just so surreal," she said.

When he first went missing, Garstin believed Yogi Bob had been taken by someone working in the area. But sightings around the town, and tracking dogs, led her on a trail that at first ignited hope.

The night Yogi Bob went missing began like any other night.

“We always go for the same walk,” she said at the time. That night, Garstin, then 32, was with her father and their other two dogs on Georgica Close, a peninsula. When they get to the peninsula they typically take the dogs off leash, she said.

That night, they saw an interior light on in a parked car and went down to the driveway to alert the homeowners.

In that short three-minute window, Yogi Bob had disappeared.

“We called, and the two big dogs came, but the little one didn’t,” she said. “I knew right away that something was wrong. I had a weird feeling.”

Yogi Bob, a “savvy” pup, has traveled to Europe and the Dominican Republic with Garstin, and has even paddle-boarded with her.

Frantic, Garstin searched for the dog she says is a beloved companion to her son. “He’s a member of our family,” she said.

Out all night calling his name, Yogi Bob was nowhere to be found.

Garstin turned to social media, spreading posts with his photo and information far and wide. She reached out to the local shelters, too — and calls came in with sightings.

The tracking dogs from Ohio confirmed that the intrepid Yogi Bob had made it all the way to Bridgehampton.

Next, a caller said they’d seen Yogi Bob near Winston’s in East Hampton; the tracking dogs confirmed that it had, indeed, been Yogi Bob. He’d darted across Montauk Highway and was south of the highway in East Hampton village.

Yogi Bob was spotted in the long-term parking lot in East Hampton Village.

Reflecting on her dog, Garstin said he was named after Yogi the Bear and Bob Marley, for his energy.

Despite his small, five-pound size, Yogi Bob is smart. However, Garstin said, he’s likely terrified.

“He’s just the most adventurous, loyal little guy,’ she said. When her baby was born, Yogi Bob sat perched on her shoulder, cuddled up next to them while she fed her son. “He’s such a family guy. He’s a family member.”

Known for his antics, such as sitting in the golf cart, and traveling the world, Garstin said, “He’s like a cartoon character — the adventures of Yogi Bob.”

And now he's returned from his greatest adventure of all.