Gizmo the dog went missing in Las Vegas in 2015. He's been found alive after 9 years

A Las Vegas woman was living with her parents in 2015 when her dog Gizmo slipped past a faulty gate in the backyard of their home and disappeared. After nine years, they've finally been reunited.

Judith Monarrez crumpled onto her kitchen floor and wept when the news arrived in an email: Gizmo, her pet dog missing for nine years, had been found alive.

Monarrez was 28 and living with her parents in 2015 when Gizmo, then two years old, slipped past a faulty gate in the backyard of their home in Las Vegas.

The decade that followed brought a lot of change. Monarrez, now 37, moved into her own home, earned a master's degree in English, and began her teaching career in higher education. But throughout the years, Monarrez said, she never stopped trying to find Gizmo.

Now, she was climbing into her car to drive across town to meet Gizmo at an animal hospital. Monarrez was later told that a woman had found the now 11-year-old dog and dropped him off at the vet, where they scanned his microchip, triggering the email notification that sent Monarrez to her knees, crying.

Within hours of receiving that email on July 17, Gizmo was back in his owner's arms. Monarrez called it "a miracle."

"Hindsight is 2020," she said. "I'm so glad I registered his microchip."

Their reunion came at the same time a new Las Vegas city ordinance requiring pet owners to microchip their cats and dogs is set to take effect Aug. 1.