Dutchess the fox terrier squeezed out the door at her owner's house in Orlando, Florida, one day in February 2007 and didn't return. A devastated Katheryn Strang made "lost dog" signs and took daily trips to the local shelter for months, desperate to find her.

On Friday, Strang finally got the reunion she had been hoping for - 12 years after Dutchess disappeared. A man found the dog under his shed in the Pittsburgh area, almost 1600 kilometres from Orlando. He took the shivering animal to a shelter, Humane Animal Rescue. There, a scan of Dutchess's microchip linked her to Strang, who had since moved to Boca Raton, Florida.

Katheryn Strang is reunited with her fox terrier, Dutchess. Credit:AP

At the shelter on Friday, Strang cried as an employee handed her the dog she had always hoped would one day return to her. Staff members posted footage of the emotional reunion on Facebook, writing, "This is why we do what we do."

"Dutchess. Hi, baby. I missed you," Strang says in the video as she strokes the dog's face. "Your face is all white."