A California man was shocked to find his dog on Google Street View in Chapala, Mexico, over 1,300 miles away from his home in San Diego. He claims to have spent 16 hours over a weekend exploring Chapala, when he spotted his dog, Maya, sitting on a sidewalk as a stray dog in a neighborhood. Reddit user krishansonRCF shared his wholesome moment, along with photos of his findings, with thousands of others on r/googlestreetviewfinds.
“I came across this street and boom, I immediately screamed. It’s one of those things where you know your dog well, and I just knew,” he remarked, explaining how he set the Google Street View year to 2019. This was the year that Maya would have been in Chapala since she was rescued back in October 2020.
“I’m 99% sure it’s her, and I fully recognize I had like a 5% chance of actually finding her at best. But… when you know, you just know,” krishansonRCF warmly wrote. While plenty of Redditors found OP’s discovery to be quite heartfelt, many expressed how they misunderstood what he was saying at first and had interpreted his post’s title very differently.
“I thought you meant you lost your dog and then found her on google streets,” wrote a commenter. “Captivating title. Definitely had me in the first half. Are you in journalism or marketing? If not you should be,” joked another. Though, many doubted his findings, claiming that the photos of Maya he shared and the one in the Streets’ picture looked different. The main point of contention was that the stray dog’s paws were white; Maya’s were not.
The California Owner Explains Why His Dog’s Paws Look Different From the Google Street View Image
Fortunately, OP was well-prepared with proof to ensure people believed the two dogs were the same. “Maya had pretty distinctive white socks at an earlier age,” he explained, adding how, over the years, her paws have gradually become tanner and tanner.
OP shared other detailed info about Maya’s DNA testing and her family, which all point to the timing of her life as a street dog in Chapala being very accurate. He also claims to have met the owner of Maya’s alleged daughter, who says the puppy was rescued as a street dog.
If the California owner’s findings and claims weren’t enough, he added that he reached out to the rescue group in Chapala to verify whether the photo was accurate. “When they saw it, they said, ‘That’s Ivy!’ which was her name while at the rescue,” he wrote. No doubt, it must be thrilling to know all that effort and research wasn’t in vain.
