A Florida woman thought her dog was gone for good when it ran away eight years ago, but then she got a phone call that she’ll never forget.

On June 30 around 3 a.m., a Lee County animal control officer called Louise Friedlander to tell her, Tessa, her Yorkshire terrier, who ran away in 2009, was found wandering outside a fire department near Fort Myers.

"I said, 'Tessa, it's Mama!' She jumped up on the cage and she wagged her tail and licked my hand and she smiled, like a Pepsodent smile," Friedlander told the Naples Daily News.

Tessa went missing on Father's Day eight years ago when someone left a gate open while Friedlander was at Fort Myers Beach, according to the Daily News.

Friedlander said she spent hours looking for the little terrier when she first disappeared, and spent the next few months posting newspaper ads and flyers in several neighborhoods.

"I never thought she would come back," Friedlander said.

Tessa received shots and was spayed, and is now back home with an amazed Friedlander.

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