A deaf dog and his deaf owner have been reunited thanks to a GPS collar.
The family panicked when two-year-old rescue dog Lex disappeared from their back yard.
Lex’s owner, Jon Rollins, told KTVI he let the playful pup out to his gated garden and went to watch TV before he escaped.
Jon’s son Eli was also home and told of his panic.
“Since he’s a deaf dog, we can’t just go calling out for him. He won’t hear us,” he explained.
“I was so worried because we just got him and I was so scared of anything ever happening to him.”
Lex was adopted by the Rollins family from St. Louis, a foster-based rescue programme which looks after double merle Australian Shepherds.
The unfortunate pups have a gene which causes eye abnormalities and hearing problems.
It means the dogs are often tragically abandoned or given up.
Luckily, the family had recently bought a GPS tracking collar for Lex. It meant owner Jon, who is also deaf, got alerts on his watch whenever the pooch moved around.
He successfully tracked his beloved pet around the neighbourhood and rushed to the location, following an app on his phone.
After arriving, Jon found Lex being stroked and petted on the side of the road.
The family were overjoyed to see their four-legged friend was safe.
Jon said: “I went over there and I saw a family petting something and I thought it might be Lex.
“So I drove to that family and they said ‘is that your dog?’ And I said ‘yes, yes.”