For a pet owner, there’s nothing more painful than a missing pet.

The nightmare will suspend any unfortunate pet owner between moving on and holding on.

Sometimes, pet owners know in their bones that their best friend is still alive but they don’t have the means to mount a search.

But they never give up hope.

All they can do is hope and pray that their pets can make their way back home.

Whether it’s sooner or later, only time can tell.

Or a pet detective.

Bill Ballato thought he’ll never receive the phone call he’s been waiting for.

It started with a missing beagle.

Two years before the call, an unexpected nightmare happened. Somehow, his 9-year-old beagle mix Bosco slipped out from his collar.

To make things worse, his area in Westerley, Rhode Island was battered by three different snow storms.

At first, Ballato held onto hope that Bosco can make it back.

But after the whiteouts, he felt that he needed to let go.

“That was the first time it actually entered my mind that I’m not getting this dog back,” Ballato recalled, as quoted by The Dodo. “At the same time, I know this dog. He’s a tough little guy.”

When the weather finally cleared, Ballato quickly mounted a search.

He made rounds in his neighborhood by car or by foot. He also made a post on social media.

His search, no matter how long and thorough, didn’t yield any results.

Eventually, he needed to give up the entire operation because he had to move to Lafayette, Colorado. But he had a few last strings of hope.

Ballato held on.

Then, Sheilah Graham got a message asking for help.

The Facebook message came from a Facebook group of missing dogs.

The person who reached out to her explained to her about Ballato’s case.

Graham is a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. So why are people asking her for help?

It turns out, she has a very interesting calling.

She’s a pet tracker.

So far, she has helped more than 70 pets reunite with their families.

Graham’s approach to looking for dogs is systematic.

She shared that she tracks sightings and places pins on the map.

She then tries to plot the possible habitual routes of an animal so she knows when and how to trap them.

After talking to Ballato to get the necessary profile description, Graham went to work.

She found his trail.

She found out that Bosco was hanging out near a bar in Westerley.

She baited him with burgers.

She then left a trail of steak and burgers that lead into a small cage.

“Hey Bill, do you recognize this voice?” Graham said, quoting what she said to Ballato.

In the background, one can hear Bosco’s unique call that lands somewhere between a growl and a howl at the same time.

After two years, the ordeal has finally come to an end.

Bosco was generally okay when he was found. In fact, Graham said that he’s the first-ever dog she found that has gained weight.

When Graham was notified Ballato wasn’t in a condition to ride a plane back to Rhode Island, the pet detective went the extra mile.

More specifically, a couple thousand miles.

Graham said she does this for free.

The only “payment” she receives is watching the emotions of owner and dog alike when they reunite once more especially after a long time.

“I always felt that he made it,” Ballato said to The Dodo. “Except for a couple of days after those blizzards.”

And he did, thanks to food scraps, a trail of steak, and a woman with a heart of gold.

Watch Bosco and Ballato be reunited in the video below!

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Source: YouTube – Bart Ehleen, The Dodo, FOX 31, Facebook – Bosco’s Journey Home