A California dog that vanished more than a year ago and ended up more than 1,600 miles away in Kansas is back home.

Zeppelin, the dog, was recently found after having disappeared 14 months ago.

After Heather Reichart found him barking in her pasture, she took him to a vet in Louisburg, where a microchip scan revealed he belonged to an owner in Sacramento, KCTV first reported.

The dog’s owner, Sandra O’Neil, had never given up hope since the pooch went missing.

"I always thought if he got away and someone checked his chip maybe he would come back to us," she told sister station KCRA on Wednesday. "I hadn’t given up completely."

She had driven to the spot where she last saw him and said a prayer. The next day she got the call that he had been found.

"I was just floored by how far he made it," she said.

O’Neil first got a virtual reunion with Zeppelin via FaceTime and now will have him back at home just in time for the holidays.

"This is an amazing gift. Our whole family is blessed to have him coming home," said O'Neill.

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Zeppelin's long road trip home happened thanks to the efforts of another stranger. Mary Hastings, who is from Newberry Springs in Southern California.

"I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t ask anybody. I just did it," Hastings said.

Hastings was visiting her sister in Ohio when her daughter in Kansas told her about Zeppelin who needed a ride home. She volunteered to drive the dog back to its owner. They arrived in Sacramento on Wednesday and met near the Sacramento Wier.

Hastings wanted to give the special gift during the Christmas season.

"Room at the inn. Be the one that can make a difference," she said. "Be the one that can change something and that’s what I was feeling."

The reunion took place in the same area where O'Neill first found Zeppelin in January 2020. She believes someone dumped him there.

O'Neill calls Hastings a "Christmas Angel" and said she is excited to have Zeppelin home for the holidays.

"I don't know what he’s been through so he’s going to get lots of love," she said.

OLATHE, Kan. —

First Lt. Dustin Fergen had been deployed for almost 11 months overseas. He hadn't seen his family since Thanksgiving last year.

That changed Wednesday.

During an assembly at Heatherstone Elementary School in Olathe, Kansas, he surprised his two daughters. They both, fourth grader Joanna Fergen and first grader Angelica Fergen, didn’t see it coming.

"I was half expecting them to come running up to me, but it took a little coaxing. It was everything I could ask for," Fergen said.

Once the shock wore off, it was all smiles for the reunited family.

"But it all worked out and it was worth every second of the wait and the little lies we had to tell," Kim Fergen, the lieutenant's wife, said.

This was Fergen's first deployment. He serves as an intelligence officer in the 130th field artillery unit.

He’s now stationed a lot closer to home in Manhattan, Kansas.

The family says they have a lot of vacations planned to make up for lost time.

CLERMONT, Fla. —

A tragic story has come to an incredible conclusion in Florida.

The Clermont Police Department Detective Division said officials received a call on Sept. 2 from Angelica Vences-Salgado, who is the mother of the victim abducted from her home in 2007 at the age of 6.

The girl was allegedly abducted by her father, Pablo Hernandez. A felony warrant for kidnapping was issued for Pablo on Dec. 27, 2007.

Vences-Salgado told police she received a Facebook message from someone claiming to be her daughter. The person said she was in Mexico and asked Vences-Salgado to meet her at the Point of Entry located at the border in Texas on Sept. 10.

Multiple law enforcement agencies investigated and, based on documentation provided, determined that the woman was in fact Vences-Salgado's missing child.

"[Officials] determined that the female was indeed Jacqueline Hernandez who was abducted from her mother in 2007. At approximately 4:55 p.m., Jacqueline, now 19 years old, was successfully reunited with her mother," a news release said.

The Clermont Police Department thanked the Orange County Sheriff's Office, HSI in Orlando and Laredo, ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), US Customs and Border Protection as well as Laredo Police Department in Texas for their help in the case.

"This is a prime example of what can be accomplished when multiple law enforcement agencies and their respective communities work cooperatively together and maintain open lines of communication. In this case, several agencies in different counties and states across the nation were able to create a force multiplier and aid in reuniting the victim with her mother after 14 years," Clermont police Chief Charles Broadway said.

"A kidnapped daughter was reunited with her mother as a result of enforcement working together," said HSI Orlando Assistant Special Agent in Charge David Pezzutti. "This is a great example of how strong partnerships in law-enforcement can work to solve problems no matter the complexity or distance."

Police have not released the details surrounding what happened to Jacqueline Hernandez after her abduction.

CHICAGO —

A Chicago woman who lost her wedding band nearly 50 years ago was reunited with the ring just in time for Valentine's Day.

Karen Autenrieth and her husband Robert, surrounded by their children and grandchildren on Valentine's Day, opened the package holding the long lost ring.

In a video taken by their daughter Michele, Robert Autenrieth is seen sliding the ring -- which he had given his wife on their wedding day nearly 55 years ago -- on her finger before he kisses her.

"Happy, very happy," Karen said when asked how she felt. "It's like I can't believe it. It's amazing."

The improbable story began during the winter of 1973, when Karen lost her wedding band at her grandmother's house in Chicago. It's a memory she clearly recalls decades later.

"It was very cold and the snow plows had plowed the snow up onto the curbs," Karen told the Chicago Tribune. "I had parked my car in front of my grandmother's house and I was climbing over mounds of snow, helping each kid get into the car. My hands were cold -- I didn't have mittens on -- and my ring just flew into the snow."

Despite her best efforts, Karen said she was unable to find the gold ring -- which had "RA to K.B. 4-16-66" engraved on it in honor of the day she and her husband married.

She was disappointed but accepted that she might never see the ring again.

Related video: Couple reunited with engagement ring lost in snow

The universe had other plans

In February, a Chicago man who lost his own wedding ring posted on Facebook asking if anyone had found it.

In the comments section, Sarah Batka, a woman who lives in Autenrieth's grandparents' former Chicago home, said she had discovered a wedding ring "six to eight years ago" while she was gardening. It wasn't the man's ring, but it sparked a hunt for the rightful owner.

After being tagged in the post, two historians -- Carol Flynn and Linda Lamberty -- set off to solve the mystery. The historians work at the Ridge Historical Society, which is dedicated to "preserving and interpreting" the history of Chicago neighborhoods.

Flynn and Lamberty used government records, newspaper archives and genealogy sites to retrace the origin of the ring, Flynn wrote in a Facebook post.

Within days, they had a lead.

They discovered that a woman -- Karen Autenrieth -- had grandparents who once lived in Batka's home and now resides in San Antonio, Texas. They thought that she was the possible owner of the ring.

"The woman was on Facebook, and around 2:30 a.m., I sent an enthusiastic if somewhat disjointed message to her. Was this ring by chance hers?" Flynn wrote in the post.

"She replied later Monday morning -- it was hers! She lost it 50 years ago in the snow at her grandmother's house! She was amazed that it had been found all these years later. We got together by phone and had a teary-eyed conversation," Flynn wrote.

After connecting, Flynn mailed the ring to Autenrieth, who held onto the package to open it on Valentine's Day with her husband.

"I went, 'Holy Mary, I can't believe it,'" Karen told the Chicago Tribune. "Our 55th anniversary will be April 16. And to think we'll be getting the ring back after almost 50 years."