Meghan Stamelos said she was crying hysterically when she finally reached her husband on the phone just after 10 a.m. Thursday.

“He didn’t know if they were tears of pain or joy,” Stamelos said.

Turns out, it was the latter.

Sadie, the family’s 13-year-old family pooch, had been found by neighbors after 34 days on the loose. It had been confirmed, not like the more than dozen times Stamelos had gotten calls over the past months from strangers who had found a wayward pet and matched it to one of hundreds of fliers she had posted in the Smithville section of Galloway Township. Sadie got through a section of their backyard fence that had been removed while installing a pool.

Each time she had received a call she said the same launch of emotions ensued and each time, she, her husband and 5-year-old son came crashing back to the ground when it turned out it wasn’t their beloved Sadie.

But this time, she saw a picture that was sent along. Confirmed, it was her dog.

Sadie, a 13-year-old shepherd-pit terrier mix who had been missing for 34 days, after reuniting with his owner, Meghan Stamlos in Galloway.

“I know my dog,” said Stamelos, 31. “I knew she was hiding in the woods somewhere. I knew she would give up eventually and come out.”

But Sadie, a shepherd and pit bull mix, wasn’t unscathed. She had lost 15 pounds off of the 40 she weighed before she vanished and was “super malnourished,” Stamelos said.

Stamelos said once she got off the phone with her husband she dashed out of her office to make the 20-minute ride to where Sadie was found, blocks away from their home near a wooded area in Atlantic County not far from Atlantic City.

Her husband, P.J. got there first.

“When Sadie saw him, she just laid on the ground,” Meghan Stamelos said. “It was like, ‘I can finally relax. They found me.’”

Sadie was so depleted, the muscles in her rear legs were too weak to climb the stairs to her bed. Five-year-old Declan had welcomed her back moments before as she sat in the front seat of a car.

“Is that Sadie?” Declan asked. “You finally found Sadie!”

Sadie, a 13-year-old shepherd-pit terrier mix who had been missing for 34 days, after reuniting with his family in Galloway, including Declan Stamlos, 5.

“It’s amazing the dog survived for that long and found enough to sustain him,” said Barbara Poyda, owner of Missing K9 Search & Rescue, a service Stamelos turned to for help.

Poyda set up cameras and bait stations near locations where Sadie may have been. Sadie never turned up on cameras but Poyda thinks all the signs Stamelos posted on poles and with lawn signs helped identify the dog. They also gave instructions, such as to stand back and try to lure the dog closer instead of running after it.

Eventually a group of about six neighbors who had seen the signs lured Sadie out with a piece of a doughnut and slipped a collar and leash on her.

Stamelos said she got scores of messages since posting that Sadie had been found on social media, which also played a huge role in alerting people in the area about her missing “family member.”

She said she didn’t know how to thank everyone, but she intended to stay active within the network she tapped into of people helping find lost dogs. She also said she thinks all the dogs she was mistakenly alerted to did eventually find their way home.

Just like Sadie.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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