A veteran and his dog Turbo are back together after being separated for six years and 2,000 miles.
"I lost it. I lost it so bad. It was like reuniting with that lost brother," Ray McCullogh recalls of his feelings sitting on the floor of a Michigan veterinary office.
It was the first time the Marine held Turbo in six years.
“It was like a mending of my heart," McCullogh said.
McCullough got the Italian Greyhound shortly after leaving the Marines in 2008.
"When I first met him I was like that is a really cool dog and then he pooped right next to me. I was like if I have to clean up your poop, I might as well take you home," McCullogh said.
A couple years later, McCullogh says his girlfriend at the time sold Turbo while he was at work. They later broke up but he could never track his beloved dog down.
When it comes to talking about losing each other the veteran got a little emotional.
“I was really lost. I was trying to deal with something I didn't even know I had at the time. The whole PTSD thing, but it hurt. It was like a little piece of your soul gone," McCullogh said.
Eventually he met his wife Rhonda. They later moved to Las Vegas, but he never forgot his dog.
"Turbo has just been a picture on an iPad for the past six years of our life and a story,” Rhonda McCullogh said.
That was until they got a voicemail while shopping Monday. It was from a veterinary's office in Michigan saying they had Turbo.
"My whole world stopped for a good three seconds or so," Ray McCullogh said.
Turns out the microchip had never been changed.
One of the couple's friends is a flight attendant and helped get Ray McCullogh to Michigan and back.
"Four planes later here we are," Rhonda McCullogh said.
Ray McCullogh and Turbo are back together and making up for lost time.
"I love him. He is my dude," McCullogh said.
The pair just got back to Las Vegas Thursday afternoon.
The couple is planning to take Turbo to the veterinarians office first thing Friday morning to update his microchip and get him checked out.
