An 11-year-old dog named Chloe needed a home. When Nicole Grimes saw her picture on Facebook, something about the little dog caught her attention.
She looked like the pet Nicole had loved as a child. She even had the same name.
Nicole agreed to take her in. It was a decision that would bring an unexpected piece of her childhood back into her life.
But first, she needed to find out whether the resemblance meant what she hoped it did.
Nicole had been 10 when her grandmother, Jane Cecil, gave her a puppy. The little Pomeranian-poodle mix became the companion she had wanted.
Photo Credit: Nicole Grimes
Her mother and grandmother had brought the puppy along to pick her up from school. Nicole remembered the little dog sitting on her grandmother’s lap, wearing a pink bow.
For the next few years, Chloe was part of Nicole’s childhood. Then, when Nicole was 14, her father started a job working from home.
The work required quiet, and Chloe’s barking became a problem. Her parents decided they could no longer keep her.
Photo Credit: Nicole Grimes
The family took Chloe to the Washington Area Humane Society. Nicole later recalled how upset she had been on the drive there, knowing she would have to leave her dog behind.
Afterward, she wondered where Chloe had gone. Someone else might have adopted her, but Nicole did not know who they were or what her dog’s new life looked like.
She grew up with those unanswered questions. Chloe remained a dog she remembered and missed.
By early 2018, Nicole was 21, married, and raising her infant daughter, Violet, in Pennsylvania.
She was considering bringing a dog into her own family when a friend’s Facebook post appeared. The friend was trying to find a home for a senior dog.
The photograph stirred memories. Nicole had a young daughter now, and the dog in the post reminded her of the one who had been beside her when she was a girl.
Photo Credit: Nicole Grimes
She offered to take Chloe in. At that point, she was welcoming an older dog who needed a family. The question of whether this could actually be her childhood pet still needed an answer.
When Chloe arrived, she ran up to Nicole and licked her face.
To Nicole, the greeting felt familiar. As she spent more time with the dog, her hope grew that this really was the Chloe she remembered.
Her husband, Isaiah, was less convinced. A familiar face and a familiar name were remarkable, but they still needed a way to know for sure.
A visit to a veterinary clinic supplied the missing evidence.
Chloe’s microchip number matched the records for Nicole’s childhood dog at the Humane Society. Nicole’s mother helped check the information.
The dog Nicole had just taken in was the same Chloe her family had surrendered years earlier.
The resemblance, the name, and the affectionate greeting finally made sense. Nicole had found the dog she thought she would never see again.
“I felt like I won the lottery,” she said of the discovery.
The family also learned where Chloe had spent the years apart.
An elderly couple had adopted her, and she had lived with them for years. After they died, Chloe went to a neighbor who helped look for another home.
That neighbor happened to be Nicole’s Facebook friend. Their post had connected a dog who needed a family with the woman who still remembered her as a puppy.
Time had changed Chloe. Nicole described her as smaller and without teeth, although she still enjoyed running around.
She also had someone new to get to know: Violet.
Nicole said Chloe was gentle with her baby daughter and that seeing them together made her happy. The dog she had loved as a child was becoming part of her daughter’s early life, too.
Chloe settled into the household with Nicole, Isaiah, and Violet. Nicole could once again see for herself how her dog was doing.
The reunion carried another connection for the family. Nicole’s grandmother had died before Chloe returned.
Her grandmother had given her that puppy all those years earlier. Having Chloe back brought memories of her grandmother with it, and Nicole and her mother saw the reunion as a sign from someone they missed.
“It’s like a part of my childhood came back,” Nicole said.
Years earlier, Nicole had been the girl in the car who had to say goodbye.
Now she had a home of her own, and Chloe had a place in it.
