After her dog went missing four years ago, Kathryn Morrow was losing hope Grif was ever coming home.

Morrow says her Brussels griffon went missing New Year’s Eve 2013 and Morrow, who lives in St. Albert, Alta. just north of Edmonton, believes she was stolen.

“I never gave up hope, but recently I started to tell myself it was unrealistic that she was coming back,” said Morrow, whose sister’s dog, a Pekingese-French bulldog cross named J.J., also disappeared the same night.

The sisters say they searched endlessly for the dogs, but the few leads they received went nowhere. Grif wasn’t tattooed or microchipped, either.

But last week, things abruptly changed.

Morrow says, out of the blue, several of her friends forwarded her a picture of a dog that had been turned in to an Edmonton animal shelter that looked identical to her pet.

“I couldn’t even contain myself. I was the definition of hysterical,” Morrow told CTV Edmonton.

But Morrow says when she arrived at the shelter to see if the dog was indeed her missing Grif, she was distressed, malnourished and badly injured.

“She had an elastic band tied around her head and her ear, and it had severed her ear about two thirds of the way off,” Morrow said.

The city of Edmonton’s Animal Care and Control Centre where Grif was found says the circumstances of the dog’s surrender remain mysterious.

Spokesperson Keith Scott says the people who dropped the dog off “weren't giving really good information as to where the dog was found. They didn't want to give their names and numbers, so that's the kind of stuff that really, you wonder about if they actually found it, or what happened.”

Morrow says Grif responded to her calling out her name and after providing the shelter with the dog’s medical and dental records, along with a police report from when the dog went missing, she was able to leave with her.

Grif, 10, is now home, and recuperating from her injuries. Morrow says she’s healing well.

The family says they’re now just hoping J.J. will turn up soon, too.

“Just don't give up hope. You never know when you're going to have a little miracle around the corner,” Morrow said.

The family is raising money for Grif’s surgery, a reward for J.J.’s safe return, and donations for a local animal rescue organization.