LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Louisville, Ky., family is ecstatic to have their German shepherd returned to them after it went missing nine years ago.

Dennis and Linda Geary said the miracle was made possibly by a tagging microchip they had placed in “Astro” when he was just 1 1/2 years old.

They adopted him while living in Florida and the couple said that he ran off not 24 hours after they brought him home from the vet.

"Who hears of getting their dog back after nine years? It’s still a shock to us everyday," Linda Geary said.

"He started licking me; I was like, ‘Wow. There are the tears, this dog is coming home,'" Dennis Geary said.

The Gearys said they made phone calls for several weeks but nobody had heard or seen him.

Little did they know that nine years later, the microchip card would help reunite dog and owner.

Three weeks ago, they received a phone call from a shelter in Tennessee saying that Astro had been found.

"I had to listen to it twice. I was just totally amazed," Linda Geary said. "This man who is at a shelter saying, 'We found a German shepherd and he could be yours.’"

The shelter was able to track down the Gearys thanks to the information on Astro’s microchip.

"We had him in Florida and then moved so many times from Florida to New Hampshire to Maine back down to Florida and then here to Kentucky. And somehow he ended up in Tennessee, it’s unbelievable," the couple’s son, Trevor Geary, said.

"All the way down we were like, 'What if this guy doesn't remember us,'" Dennis Geary said. "We got down there and he remembered the both of us as soon as he came out from behind the walls. He was wagging his tail, tipped his head and was like, 'Where have you been?'"

The Gearys said they urge all pet owners to microchip their pets.