Dog who escaped Rockville boarding facility after crash returns and is reunited with owners

ROCKVILLE, Md. - If the dogs at Sniffers Doggie Retreat and Training Center could talk, who knows what stories they'd tell.

Rest assured, one dog definitely has a story after the last few days.

Michael and Nimfa Mora left their dog, Mocita, at Sniffers to go see their son graduate from a masters program in California.

Thursday afternoon, shortly after they'd landed, they got a call from a manager.

"He was very calm, but he said there's been an incident at Sniffers, and I said ‘What happened?'", Nimfa Mora said.

Around 4:30 p.m. Thursday, indications are a driver accidentally drove through the front of the business

No humans or dogs were hurt as the car plowed through, narrowly missing employees, but two dogs got out.

One, recovered within hours.

Mocita was nowhere to be found.

Laura Mathieson is co-owner at Sniffers who had just left for the day and got a call to come back.

"When I got there, it was shocking," Mathieson said.

On one hand, staff needed to handle the physical damage.

But there was a mad dash to comb the community for Mocita, which Sniffers helped lead did Thursday night and all Friday with search teams, fliers, social media posts.

"We were on the streets. We were there looking for her ‘til all hours," Mathieson said.

"We were surprised about the support and how they responded. It's like the whole city of Rockville," said Michael Mora.

But after searching all Friday, Mocita was still missing.

Then it happened: Saturday morning at about 6 a.m., the person who comes to open the business got to the doors and just as she did, she noticed something following behind her; the dog they'd been looking for the last 36 hours.

Mocita ended the search by walking right back to Sniffers.

"We were very pleased, we were like 'wow, she is smarter than we thought'. She's a very smart dog, and we underestimated her. But we were just so thankful that she decided to walk back in here," Nimfa Mora said.

Mocita doesn't appear to have suffered any injuries, something the Mora's were especially grateful given the wildlife in the area and a propensity for Mocita to dislike getting wet.

When things get lost, we strive to find them, sometimes, when we're lucky, the things we love most find us.

"We're just very fortunate, so thankful that she came back," Nimfa Mora said.

The Mora family and Laura Mathieson say they're they're appreciative of the community effort to bring Mocita back.

Update: FOX 5 was there as Mocita was reunited with her owners on Thursday.