It turned out that Henry found a good home four days after he vanished. Marvin Ivy of Chula Vista, Calif., spotted the dog on the side of a highway and renamed him Freeway, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

"He looked exhausted," Ivy said. "He didn't have a collar on."

Ivy told the newspaper he didn't take the dog to the pound because he was afraid that he would be put to sleep.

In the meantime, Cindy Wilson of Coronado was looking for her pet, posting fliers, placing newspaper ads and spending thousands of dollars on pet detectives. Her effort paid off when Ivy spotted one of the fliers and realized someone had a prior claim on the dog.

"I was really getting attached to him," he said.

Henry is back with the Wilsons and the hole in the fence that allowed him to escape has been fixed, the Union-Tribune said.