This past Sunday it was quite a reunion when the two were finally together again, a decade after Brindle managed to open a door in Rowley's home with his snout.

"Very thin," Rowley said when asked how Brindle looked during their reunion. "His coloring hasn't changed except for his gray snout. This used to be black, but my God, I didn't realize he was so thin."

Family photos of Brindle before he went missing showed a happy, mellow dog that Rowley thought he had lost forever until a message appeared through the social networking site Facebook.

Rowley says he was asked a simple question, "Did you ever have a dog named Brindle?'

"'Yes, I did.' Why is this person asking me? I had no idea what to expect," he said.

The question came from an Oklahoma military family who had discovered Brindle hiding under a bush.

After a local veterinarian found a microchip in Brindle's neck and the family tracked Rowley down.

"I don't know what to say. I just can't believe someone would do this," Rowley said.

Brindle's years on the road have not been kind to him. He has heartworms, bad teeth and a dislocated hip.

A local animal lover in Virginia offered to fly to Oklahoma and drive Brindle back to Rowley's Virginia home.

"He needed a way home," Brindle's driver said. "If the dog can wander 1,300 plus miles in 10 years I can certainly spend a few days driving."

No one knows how Brindle managed to get so far from home but now that he is back his owner says his top priorities are to keep him happy, comfortable and contained.

"For him to get out now, he's going to have to turn a knob and flip a dead bolt," Rowley said. "I'm still thinking about some of those child safety locks."