Diabetic Girl’s Tearful Reunion With Stolen Service Dog

After a long and arduous time apart, 11-year-old Alayna Barnes was finally reunited with her long lost service dog, Major. And after missing the dog for nearly a month, Alayna was ecstatic to see her best friend and savior walking down the terminal at the Little Rock Airport.

A Girl and Her Dog

Alayna and Major’s relationship is a special one - not only are they best pals, but Alayna also relies on Major’s keen sense of smell. A diabetic, Alayna is unable to internally regulate how much insulin is in her system - a problem that, if left unchecked, could quickly send her into a diabetic coma. However, thanks to his finely tuned and specially trained nose, Major is able to sniff out and alert Alayna to any changes in her blood sugar.

A Service Dog Stolen

During what was supposed to be a routine training reinforcement session, Major left for Colorado with his trainer, Julie Noyes. However, things quickly went off the rails.

Suspecting that Major was being abused, Noyes acted rashly and took the service dog, refusing to send him back to his family. Aghast at the allegations, the Barnes family immediately retaliated by pressing charges against the rogue trainer, demanding that she return their daughter's service dog and answer for her crimes.

The matter escalated quickly, with Noyes coming close to being extradited back to Arkansas and charged with a felony. The charges were eventually dropped after, realizing she was between a rock and a hard place, Noyes decided to return Major to the Barnes family if they agreed to drop the lawsuit.

A Service Dog Returned

Now back with his loving family, the first thing Major did (after giving kisses to everyone in his family) was to get straight back to work, detecting a change in Alanya’s insulin not two minutes after deplaning.

The second stop Major made was to the vet to make sure the precious pup was still in tip-top shape after the whole ordeal. He was.

Now a complete family again, Major and Alanya are both in high spirits. “He's so excited to be home," Alanya told reporters. And you can be sure that his excitement was met in kind by his best pal.