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Jacksonville woman reunited with her missing service dog after 11 months apart

A Jacksonville woman who relies on her service dog to help her through cancer was reunited with him after nearly a year apart.

She spoke only to Action News Jax's Danielle Avitable about the chance encounter that made the reunion possible.

"And when you're with me, Toto, I love you," Deniece Bruce sang to her dog Toto.

Bruce said Toto slipped his collar before walking into the veterinarian’s office 11 months ago.

"He slipped out of his collar, ran into the street, got hit and took off," Bruce said.

Toto was more than just a dog to Bruce.

"I started having grand mal seizures and he started alerting me of when my seizure was coming on," Bruce said.

The medicine she was taking for her leukemia caused seizures and although he wasn’t trained to alert her, he did it anyway.

"Instinct kicked in. Because I had nursed him to health, he turned around and did it for me," Bruce said.

So when he left her side, she said she never gave up hope that he would be back.

"Everybody kept trying to tell me to go get another dog, he's gone, he's dead and I kept saying, 'God is going to bring him back,'" Bruce said.

She put up flyers and went door to door searching for months.

“I took dog food and put out water and his bowls and kept going back during the day and morning and no luck," Bruce said.

On Wednesday, Florida Urgent Rescue was out searching for another dog named Allie when they found Toto.

They posted his picture on social media and someone recognized him from a lost dog sign.

"There's no words to express how grateful I am," Bruce said.

Florida Urgent Rescue is still looking for Allie. She was last seen at 6817 Norwood Ave.

If you find her, call 904-553-9779 or email floridaurgentrescue@gmail.com.