Video: We Thought We’d Never See This Chained Dog Again. We Were Wrong.

For the two PETA volunteers out delivering straw bedding on a chilly spring day, it was a typical stop: a rundown trailer in rural North Carolina with an aging, unkempt black dog chained up in the backyard. They put straw in her doghouse, cleaned up her small patch of dirt, gave her some treats and ear scratches, took photos, noted the owner’s name and address, and moved on to the next stop.

The next day at the Sam Simon Center, PETA’s Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters, fieldworker Jessica Cochran looked at the photos that the volunteers had taken and rubbed her eyes. That dog sure looked like Edith, a chow mix she had been visiting at another address for years, providing her with a doghouse, transporting her to PETA’s mobile clinic for spay surgery, and giving her lots of toys, treats, food, fresh water, and tummy rubs during more than a dozen visits over the years. But two years earlier, Edith had disappeared, and Jes had no idea what had happened to her. Jes looked at the photos again and then saw the owner’s name, and her heart skipped a beat.

It was Edith.

The life of every chained dog is heartbreaking, but Edith had struck a chord with Jes. When Jes first started visiting her, the dog was a young, wriggling bundle of soft, fluffy, black fur. As the years passed, Edith’s puppy-like optimism and enthusiasm never dimmed. Unlike many other chained dogs, who go mad from intensive confinement, she never became fearful or aggressive. She always greeted Jes like an old friend, licking her face and rolling over onto her back for her tummy rubs. Edith never really cared about treats or toys—all she wanted was attention. It’s hard to leave dogs like that—dogs who live for affection but rarely get it.

Then one day in 2013, Jes went to visit Edith, and she was gone. Knowing the many dangers that “backyard dogs” face—contagious diseases, heartworms, exposure, heat exhaustion, dehydration, and attacks by loose dogs or cruel people—Jes assumed the worst, that Edith was dead.

But as it turns out, fears about Edith’s demise were a bit premature.

Jes was so excited to learn that her old friend was alive that she drove out to the property as soon as she could to visit her. When the dog spotted Jes, she jumped up and down in excitement. As Jes spoke with her owner, she learned that the woman was moving again, and this time, she wouldn’t be able to take Edith with her: She needed to find her a new home. Jes couldn’t believe the serendipitous timing. After waiting so long, Edith was finally going to leave that chain behind for good.

Jes couldn’t face the uncertainty again of not knowing where Edith was or how she was doing, so she knew from the moment she loaded her into the van that she was going to take her home. Now Jes is determined to make up for lost time and show Edith all the things that make life wonderful for dogs, including going for long walks and car rides, having playdates at the dog park, snuggling on the couch, and getting tummy rubs every day, not just on special occasions when the PETA van shows up.

“If I could go back to 2007 and tell Edith something,” Jes says, “I would tell her that one day she will go home with me.”