A Florida Dog Vanished. He Turned Up in New York With a New Name.

Apollo had no business becoming a New Yorker.

He is a 13-year-old Shih Tzu from Marion County, Florida — the kind of senior dog whose world should mostly involve familiar rooms, familiar voices, and maybe a snack he was not technically promised.

Then, in April, he got out through a gate and disappeared. His family searched. They waited. They kept his food, his toys, and the kind of hope that starts to hurt after a while. More than two months passed with no Apollo.

Then came the call. Not from the next street. Not from the next county. From Long Island, New York, more than 1,000 miles away.

Apollo had been taken to a Long Island shelter after being found in New York. When shelter staff scanned him, the dog who had vanished from Florida suddenly had a way back to his family.

There was one very strange detail: Apollo was wearing a tag with another name: “Yuri.”
His family knew better. His name was Apollo Franklin Josey, and somehow, the 13-year-old Shih Tzu who vanished from Florida had ended up with a new tag, a new state, and a very confusing travel history.

How Apollo got from Florida to New York is still not fully clear. Local reporting says the family had questions from the beginning, including about what happened after he first disappeared. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office had previously determined that the case did not qualify as a crime based on the information available at the time.

So, no, we are not calling this theft. Apollo’s road trip north is still a mystery.
And Apollo, unfortunately, is not giving interviews.

Once the family got the call, Nicholas Josey flew to New York to bring Apollo home. It was the kind of reunion that starts before the plane even lands: disbelief, relief, and the sudden emotional math of realizing your missing dog is alive, safe, and waiting more than 1,000 miles away.

Apollo also came home to a changed household. While he was missing, the Josey family welcomed a newborn son.

For 13 years, Apollo had been the baby. Now, he had a baby brother to meet.

That is what makes this more than a lost-dog headline. Apollo did not come back with answers. He came back with questions, a different name tag, and a story no one can fully explain yet. But he also came back alive, in time for his 14th birthday, and in time to meet the newest person in the house.

For now, that is the part that matters. Apollo came back with questions his family may never fully answer, but also with the one ending they wanted most: he came back.