Missing Georgia dog found 470 miles from home near Kentucky border

A missing dog that disappeared from its Georgia home six years ago remarkably turned up Saturday — nearly 500 miles from his original home.

Chief, a 7-year-old pitbull, was spotted wandering alone near East Lynn Lake, located roughly 20 miles east of the Kentucky border.

After an individual wrangled the canine and brought it to a nearby animal shelter, professionals realized he belonged to Tara Hillis of Atlanta thanks to a microchip she had put in him when he was a puppy.

“I honestly thought I’d never see him again,” Hillis told WSAZ. “Initially, I thought maybe someone took him to try to breed him, but he’s fixed. So many years go by, you just really miss him.”

“So many years go by, you’re just kinda like, ‘Oh, I miss him,” Hillis said, adding she nearly gave up all hope of being reunited with her pet.

The elated pet owner said Chief had vanished from her property when he was just 1-and-a-half years old in 2017.

At first, Hillis suspected someone stole him from her yard, but she figures he more than likely jumped or dug from under her fence.

The escape is not out of the question for Chief — the canine broke free from the Huntington District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, located near East Lynn Lake, when they first found him meandering a week earlier.

Chief spent a week in their office while rangers tried to locate his owner.

“Unfortunately, it escaped from them,” a spokesperson told Fox News, adding Chief was picked up a short time later and brought into the Huntington-Cabell-Wayne Animal Control Shelter

Shelter officials said Chief is a healthy and friendly dog.

“He’s just a big baby,” Rachel Boone, the shelter’s K-9 behavior specialist, said.

The mysteries of how Chief escaped, how he ended up 470 miles from home and how he spent the last six years might never be solved, but Hillis said she is just extremely happy to be reconciled with the adventurous dog, which could be as soon as Monday.

Hillis expects to be overcome with emotion — similar to how she reacted when she received the initial phone call from the shelter — but hopes Chief remembers who she is.

“I can’t believe this,” Hillis said. “This is insane. Every time I’d talk about it that day, I’d get chill bumps.”