OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WVLT) – An Oak Ridge family feels grateful for its local newspaper and animal shelter after both helped reunite them with their long lost dog.

It's the type of story Disney movies are made of.

The Massengill family told Volunteer TV News that Tag first went missing in November 2008.

"We looked for 3 or 4 months and still had no luck finding him," said Kelsie Masengill, 15 who has grown up with the dog.

They called the animal shelter every day at first and posted a missing poster for him on a community bulletin board. Then the days started to turn into months and his poster was replaced by ones for other missing pets.

The was until a few days ago when Kelsie’s cousin Hayden spotted a picture of Tag on the front page of the Oak Ridger in a story about animal shelter adoptions.

"When I saw him in the paper I said, ‘that's my dog,’” Massengill explained. “It was great. I cried my eyes out."

So after a year without seeing their precious Tag, the Massengill family went to pick him up at the shelter.

“They went back there and the dog was jumping and barking,” said Rhonda Bender, supervisor of the Oak Ridge animal Shelter. “It was their dog. She came up said, ‘that's our dog. He's been missing.’”

Animal shelter officials believe Tag had just been roaming from house to house for nearly a year when he was taken to the shelter.

Now after the happy reunion, everything seems back to normal for Kelsie.

"It's been great having him back,” she said. “He's spoiled; he sleeps with me every night and gets treated like he did before he left."

Like many animal shelters, Oak Ridge only keeps dogs for three days unless they are extra good like Tag. So if your dog goes missing, check your local shelter and bordering county shelters every three days.

"Look through every cage,” Bender said. “Don't walk by expecting your dog to bark. He might be too scared to bark"