It’s the happy ending Michael Lorimer was hoping for.
The well-known panhandler, who has become a fixture of the intersection at Hastings and Nanaimo, had his heart broken last week when someone stole Mishah, a chihuahua-cross that’s been his constant companion for five years.
The story kicked off a wave of support, including an offer of help from the Thank Dog I Am Out rescue group, FLED-VI, Lost Pets BC and various members of the community.
On Thursday, all that searching paid off.
Around 9 p.m., Facebook user Kyrin Lit posted that Mishah had been located safe and sound.
“Huge thanks Garrett who identified her from all the coverage and the VPD who apprehended her captor,” he wrote.
“And of course to the thousands of followers who shared Mishah’s plight to safety.”
Vancouver police confirmed to Global News that around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, they received two 911 calls from citizens who believed they had found Mishah in the north lane of Water Street near Abbott.
They had recognized her from recent media coverage.
Officers arrived and found Mishah with a 33-year-old Vancouver man.
Police say the man was taken to jail on an unrelated warrant.
Mishah disappeared last Thursday, when Lorimer went into the Churches Chicken at Nanaimo and Hastings to use the washroom.
Lorimer, who is not homeless, became a panhandler after a car crash left him in a wheelchair with a spinal injury.
He told Global News last week that the rescue dog is the closest thing he has left to family.
“She’s my dog. I lost my wife and my parents. She’s the only thing I have left,” he said.
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