Watch: Pasco Air Force Veteran Reunited With Lost Service Dog

LAND O' LAKES, FL -- After three anxious weeks in which Land O' Lakes Air Force veteran feared he'd never see his best friend again, Sandy Girl is back home.

On Oct. 16, Larry Peteet, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was driving home from Publix on Collier Parkway with his 8-year-old service dog, Sandy Girl, when he blacked out and had a minor accident.

He was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Lutz where he was diagnosed with super ventricular tachycardia and placed in intensive care for three days.

But before he left the accident scene in an ambulance, a member of the Pasco County Fire Rescue asked him what he wanted them to do with his white Labrador retriever. Peteet named a neighbor who might look after her.

"Later, in the hospital emergency room, a policeman told me the firemen had given Sandy to the neighbor and Sandy was fine," said Peteet. "Three days later I came home and went straight to my neighbor's."

Peteet said he was shocked to learn that his neighbor at the Winter Quarters RV Park didn't have Sandy. At first he was told Sandy had been taken to Pasco County Animal Services. Then he was told she'd been dropped off at the Pet Resource Center in Hillsborough County.

Peteet said he was frantic. He checked both the Pasco and Hillsborough county shelters but Sandy was nowhere to be found. Peteet reached out to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. A deputy responded and interviewed several of Peteet's neighbors, eventually learning that another neighbor had given Sandy to someone at a local dog park who had a black Labrador retriever because he had to fly to California.

The neighbor could not be reached in California and Peteet had no clue who was had Sandy. He did everything he could think of to find her. He hired Fort Lauderdale pet detective Jamie Katz, searched shelters for dogs with a matching microchip code, offered a $500 reward for her return, passed out fliers and posted appeals on Facebook.

To Peteet, Sandy wasn't simply a pet. A former member of Air Force Special Operations, Peteet now struggles with PTSD symptoms including depression.

"Sandy is my emotional support," he said. "She's the only reason when I get down that I care about anything. She's my lifeline."

But after 22 days without Sandy, Peteet was losing hope.

Then the phone rang.

On Monday, a man contacted Katz to say he had Sandy. He was told she'd been abandoned and agreed to take her in. His boss alerted him about Sandy's real story after seeing a news segment about the missing dog.

Man and dog have now been reunited, and Peteet doesn't plan on letting Sandy out of his sight any time soon.

Images via Larry Peteet

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