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Dog reunited with family after missing in Grand Rapids for eight months

Posted at 10:23 PM, Jan 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-16 22:23:25-05

KENT COUNTY, Mich.-- A woman from Metro Detroit has been reunited with her dog after it went missing in Grand Rapids more than eight months ago. Susan David says she re-homed her German Shepard named Havoc back in May after it acted aggressively towards her granddaughter and says it escaped two days later.

David says she tried everything before deciding to re-home Havoc. She says a man in Grand Rapids offered to take Havoc in May and just two days later the dog ran away. David says she never gave up hope and now that he's back home she is keeping him.

It was an emotional reunion caught on camera Sunday. Havoc the German Shepard was reunited with his owner, Susan David, after eight months on his own. David lives in Novi and decided to give Havoc to a man in Grand Rapids when she says he acted aggressively towards her two year old granddaughter. She believes it was the result of improper training by a local handler she had taken him to to help with his barking and anxiety.

"He went after my six foot tall brother, he went after my sister, but I was able to deal with that because I decided  I would keep him away from people and was just going to deal with it," said David. "He growled and he snapped at my two year old grand daughter.That's when I drew the line and I decided I needed to re-home him."

Just two days after getting to Grand Rapids, Havoc escaped from his new owner's car. Over the past several months, Susan would travel to West Michigan almost every weekend to help look for Havoc. Eventually, she got help from the group Lost Paws.

"We've been tracking Havoc consistently since about November," said Lyndsey Sturgeon from Lost Paws. "We put some live traps out to monitor his coming and going. We had a map that we were keeping pins on to make sure we knew exactly when and where he was traveling."

"When it was really cold or when it was up in the 90's in the summer and bad thunderstorms it was really bad because I did love him," said David. "I had him since he was seven weeks old."

On Sunday, Havoc was spotted in a nearby neighborhood and slowly lured in with hot dogs and treats. Just a few hours later, he was reunited with his original owner.

"I knew I was going to cry," said David. "It was like a dream. I had dreamed about that day."

It's a second chance in his first home that David isn't taking for granted.

"I'm happy that he's home," said David.

David says since Havoc has been home he's been acting a little aggressively towards her daughter's dog, so they're going to be working with a dog trainer in the area who's highly recommended. She says this time she's not giving up on him and thinks it's a sign that he's back.