Randy Durrence, the supervisor at the Liberty County Animal Control in Hinseville, Georgia, told the New York Post that someone dropped off the pooch on July 5. A microchip embedded under Rocco's skin helped trace him to his family in Queens - Jorge and Cristina Villacis.
The couple's daughter, Natalie, who was five years old when Rocco disappeared, was ecstatic.
She told the Post: "I cried hysterically - just like I did when they told me he was lost. I felt like I was in a dream."
Durrence says the shelter reunites many families with their pets but "it's unheard of" after so many years.
