One night, Micha Porat was driving home when he saw something running across the road. He thought it might be a stray cat or a rat, so he stopped his car and checked. He found a little Chihuahua, scared and alone on the streets.
“As I walked closer, the Chihuahua ran away scared,” Porat told The Dodo. “There were cars coming back and forth as she was in middle of street. I stopped cars in middle of road that could have hit her and told them to stop and watch for the Chihuahua.”
Porat called over some people walking their dogs and told them what was going on. With their help, Porat was able to get the little dog. In the hope that he might be able to find her owner, he took her home.
Porat’s dog, Gomi, was waiting when they came back home. Gomi is a 2-year-old French bulldog who is very goofy and energetic. The lost dog was quickly welcomed into his home by Gomi. The Chihuahua was older than Gomi, but the two of them still got along great and loved to play together from the first time they met.
“Gomi was always trying to play with her but I kept telling him to relax because she could have been through a lot,” Porat said. “They snuggled together at night and both slept with me in bed.”
Porat wanted to know where Gomi’s new friend came from. That’s when he came up with an idea.
It turns out that little Gomi is an Instagram star, with more than 80,000 people following him. On Instagram, Gomi’s dad decided to write about the lost Chihuahua. He hoped that at least one of his many followers could help.
“I posted photos and videos of them on Gomi’s Instagram announcing that we found a lost Chihuahua and if anyone had info to please contact us; we are trying to find her owner,” Porat said. “I was worried though that I wouldn’t find the owner, so I started reaching out to rescues to try and find her a good home.”
Porat then got a lot of messages from people who thought they knew the dog. Her name is Osita, and her father is looking for her all over.
Osita, 14 yrs old, accidentally got out of her dad’s garage, about ten blocks away from where she was found. She works at her dad’s business, Gustavo Briand Hair Studio, where he recently made many changes. Osita is her dad’s therapy dog. He thinks that Osita was stressed out because of all the changes, and that’s why she ran away.
“When she got out of the car she ran out of the garage door as fast as she could,” Gustavo Briand, Osita’s dad, told The Dodo. “I thought she had to pee or something, but when I tried to follow her she was gone. We searched for her until 3 a.m. and couldn’t find her.”
It broke Briand’s heart when Osita ran away. Because she was so old, he didn’t think she would be able to find her way home again. He made missing dog flyers and put them all over social media in case someone saw Osita on the street. He hoped that someone would recognize her and bring her home.
“I was sure that she was not going to be taken in by anyone because she’s so old,” Briand said. “Then one of my Facebook friends posted Micha’s post on Facebook, and I saw it and said, ‘That’s my dog!'”
Briand and Porat set up a time for Porat to bring Osita home after getting in touch. When Briand saw his dog again, he was very happy. Osita was glad to see him, but she was sad to leave her new friend Gomi.
If Porat hadn’t thought to use Gomi’s account to help Osita, she and her father might not have been able to find each other again. So now that they’re back together, little Osita can spend the rest of her golden years in peace.
“She was missing just a day and a half, but enough to drive me crazy,” Briand said. “She’s my baby.”
You can follow Gomi’s adventures on Instagram.
