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'She’s just the center of our little family': Country singer overjoyed to recover missing dog after truck was stolen

Here's the story of how a community rallied to connect the pair.

SAN ANTONIO — An emotional support animal was reunited with her family after her owners went through any pet parent’s worst nightmare: losing a dog while on vacation, far from home.

Country music singer Shane Smith came to San Antonio with his wife to celebrate their anniversary. While they were checking out of Hotel Emma on Monday afternoon, his truck was stolen. 

But that wasn’t the worst part.

He had left their dog Gretchen inside of it with the A/C running and locked it with a code as they were making trips back and forth from the hotel to check out.

“She’s just the center of our little family, and we’re just having a real tough time with her gone,” Smith said.

Smith turned to social media to ask for San Antonio’s help finding Gretchen, describing her in an Instagram video post as a grey, fluffy little lapdog.

“She is a little emotional support animal for my wife,” Smith said. “We’ve had her registered for over a year now and pretty much take her with us everywhere that we go.”

And that effort paid off. Shortly after speaking with KENS 5, Smith got word that Gretchen had been found in a nature trail. 

He says he’s touched by the support he’s received throughout this ordeal.

“No one owes us anything, no one owes us any help," Smith said, "but the fact that people are being willing to help us out is encouraging and uplifting, and we’re very much humbled by it.”

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