It is very important to have your dog microchipped. Otherwise, your canine family member could end up in a potentially dangerous situation.

That was the case with a man named Barry Gearhart who had the dog he raised from a puppy stolen from him and almost lost him for good.

His poor dog was almost put to sleep at a shelter a year later.

Had he been microchipped, they likely could have avoided this.

When dogs are taken to a shelter and there is no one there to claim them, depending on the shelter, there’s a chance that they could be put down.

A pitbull named Hank was taken to a shelter in West Palm Beach.

Hank is a gray and white pit bull who is found wandering around outside in West Palm Beach and taken to a shelter. He was not microchipped and nobody came to claim him.

The staff at the shelter were working hard to find a new forever home for him but it was difficult.

As an older dog and a pit bull, he was not considered very adoptable.

The staff were giving him socialization courses to help but still no forever home was being made available to him.

Older pit bulls are less likely to be adopted.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of resources and space older and less adoptable dogs are sometimes put to sleep at some shelters.

Since they were having trouble finding a home for Hank, the shelter had put him on the list of dogs to be put down.

He was just a few days away from the end when something miraculous happened.

Barry is reunited with Titan

As it turns out, Hank’s real name is Titan and he was the beloved pet of a man named Barry Gearhart. Barry had raised Titan since he was a little puppy.

A year before he found him in the shelter, someone had stolen Titan out of Barry’s truck. He had been looking for Titan ever since but had not been able to find him.

Barry never stopped looking for Titan in all that time and his hard work finally paid off.

He’d been posting photos of his dog to local groups online in the hopes that someone would recognize him. Fortunately, someone did.

They messaged Gearhart to say that his dog Titan looked just like a pit bull that was at a local shelter in West Palm Beach.

Barry wasted no time and went directly to the shelter.

An emotional reunion.

As Barry entered the shelter and discovered his loving companion that he had been separated from for a year, he was overjoyed and burst into tears.

We can only imagine what Titan was feeling to be reunited with the man who raised him since he was a puppy and loved him so much that he never stopped looking for him.

It’s an amazing bond that dogs and humans can have.

Barry and Titan clearly love each other very much.

Titan is an older dog with some health issues but Barry is just so thankful that Titan would get to live out the rest of his days with family.

See Barry and Titan’s emotional reunion in the video below!

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Source: WPBF 25 News/Barry Gearheart