(Tribune News Service) — A dog went missing while his owner was deployed overseas — then came a joyful reunion in South Carolina.

Almost three weeks after Titan disappeared, a family spotted him on their Ring doorbell camera Christmas night. The next day, the grateful owner got to see his dog over a FaceTime call as the pup reconnected with his relatives in person, according to Homeward Bound Pet Rescue.

“He was wiggly and jumping around and happy,” Linda Provence, a co-founder and volunteer for the Columbia-area rescue organization, told McClatchy News in a Dec. 28 phone interview.

Titan was found safe about 10 miles from where he escaped Dec. 7. The pup was staying with one of his deployed owner’s relatives when he slipped out of a gate, Homeward Bound wrote in Facebook posts.

In the days that followed, people shared social media updates, put up dozens of flyers and used drones to help look for Titan. The dog, believed to be confused and cold, had been spotted several times around Irmo. He was finally caught after the family that saw him on their doorbell footage left out food for him and later found him sleeping on their porch.

“Everybody was just delighted that he had been found,” Provence said. “He had lost a lot of weight, but overall he was in pretty good shape.”

Titan’s owner, an active-duty military service member who has grown close to his pup over the past 10 years, was happy that he had been found. Many social media users took to Facebook to share their relief, with some saying the news of the reunion brought them to tears.

“He was an inside dog, so being outside even one night was totally foreign to him...,” Provence said. “We call him our Christmas miracle.”

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