A Siberian husky who went missing in Georgia, has been found and returned to her owner – five years later.

As reported by Northwest Herald the 6-year-old dog, called Chatty Kathy, had been scheduled for euthanization until Karen Ferreri-Miller, the founder of the Free Spirit Siberian Rescue, stepped in.

“It’s unbelievable how some things happen,” said Ferreri-Miller.

Ferreri-Miller paid for the dog’s board and its transport to Illinois, where she arrived at Free Spirit.

After a family chose to adopt ‘Chatty Kathy’, the team conducted a routine microchip scan while the dog was bathed.

A microchip was detected, and Ferreri-Miller called the microchip company who found an existing owner for the dog.

Ferreri-Miller left a message on Heather Jackson’s phone, and within half an hour Heather had called claiming the dog was hers, and was named Shakira.

“She had said that the dog had been missing and a neighbor had told her that some other neighbor thought the dog was a wolf and shot it,” Ferreri-Miller said. “For five years, this woman was thinking that her dog was dead.”

Being reunited with her Siberian husky after five years was a joy unlike few she’s ever experienced, Heather Jackson told the Daily Herald.

“A lot of people made assumptions that she didn’t have a chip or that someone already checked. She was almost killed because of all the assumptions,” Jackson said.

“It was a shock. I started crying, I thought somebody was playing a joke on me.

“She did recognize me, which was really surprising to me. I did not expect her to, beccause it’s been five years. When she came around the corner, she ran straight to me and rolled over on her back and licked me on the face. It was pretty awesome. Of course everybody was crying. It was really emotional.”

Jackson got Shakira from a pet store when she was 3 months old, only for Shakira to go missing about a year later in December 2007.

“We didn’t know if she was stolen or if she got out somehow. I went to the animal shelter in my country, I went there every day for a month and a half. I printed out fliers for a reward, the whole deal,” she said.

“We were really really upset about Shakira for many months. We thought she was dead.”

Jackson will now contact the shelter that had planned the euthanization and ask why they did not perform a standard procedure to check if Shakira was microchipped.

Shakira was almost unlucky, but her microchip finally helped her home. Read more about why you should microchip your dog here.