Some families who lose a dog are lucky if they recover their pet.

Rome was given up for lost by his humans in California after the English bulldog left their backyard as a puppy in January 2021, People reported. The family posted flyers, knocked on doors and filed police reports, but they always went home empty-handed.

In February, Rome’s owner received a call from Austin Pets Alive (APA) telling them that Rome was found tied to its gate in Tarrytown, Texa. APA tracked down the owner through the microchip on the dog.

The call surprised the family. They were stunned that Rome was found after four years, and that he was found 1,000 kilometers away.

Meanwhile, it’s challenging to look for a missing person who doesn’t want to be found.

The family of Audrey Backeberg from Reedsburg, Wisconsin sought help from police when she failed to return home after reportedly hitchhiking to Indianapolis with her family’s babysitter, the Racine County Eye (RCE) reports.

The case went unsolved with Backeberg nowhere to be found and her condition unknown. It was a long while before another officer took over the case in February and made a breakthrough.

Detective Isaac Hanson stumbled on an arrest record that matched the missing woman, according to RCE. Hanson investigated further until he got the date of birth and social security number of the woman and traced her address to another state.

Last month, Hanson asked a deputy in that state to check if the person living at the address was the missing Backeberg. Minutes later, he got a call from Backeberg herself confirming that she was the one he was looking for.

Although it took 63 years before Backeberg, now in her 80s, was finally found, the woman who disappeared on 7 July 1962, when she was 20, didn’t want to return home. She also did not want her family to know her address and the reason why she left, according to the detective, who respected her wish to not divulge her location.