Apollo, a 13-year-old dog, disappeared from his family’s home in Florida in April. Months later, he was found more than 1,000 miles away — at a police station on Long Island, New York.
Nobody knows how he got there. Apollo vanished from Ocala, Florida, and by the time he resurfaced he had somehow travelled the length of the East Coast to New York. His owner, Nicholas Josey, flew up to collect him and bring him home for a reunion that was, by all accounts, a joyful one.
Josey’s own summary is hard to improve on: “He went to New York before any of us.” A 13-year-old dog has now seen more of the Eastern Seaboard than most of his family, and he is not telling anyone how.
Josey says he never lost faith. “I had no doubt the whole time he’d make it back home,” he told reporters, though he admitted the New York detail was, in his words, mind-blowing.
How a senior dog covers that kind of distance remains a genuine mystery — one that stories like this rarely solve. What is clear is that Apollo was identified, his family was located, and the gap between a Florida driveway and a Long Island police station was, against considerable odds, closed.
The family is now planning a big celebration for Apollo’s 14th birthday in August. He has earned it, and presumably has some stories he is choosing to keep to himself.
A 13-year-old dog vanished in Florida and turned up 1,000 miles away at a NY police station 🐶🗽 Nobody knows how. “He went to New York before any of us,” said his owner.