A beloved family pet belonging to a Montreal family has been found in B.C. – more than a year after it ran away from home.

Isabelle Robitaille and her children were devastated when their adopted black Labrador retriever, Pollux, ran away from home last spring. The friendly pup escaped through an open gate in the backyard while they were doing yard work in the rain.

Robitaille spent a week canvassing her neighbourhood looking for their dog, even putting up posters hoping someone had her.

Then on Canada Day the Quebec resident was contacted by someone from an SPCA branch in B.C.'s Interior, saying the dog had been dropped off at the shelter.

"The kids were telling me last week ‘mommy it's a year, we think she's dead,'" Robitaille told CTV News in Montreal. "It's like amazing she's found."

"How can you imagine a year later you find your dog? It was a big, big, big surprise when they called us."

Pollux, dubbed Suki by shelter staff in Kamloops, was brought in as a stray last week.

Deemed to be in very good physical shape, and not exhibiting any signs of malnutrition or neglect, the SPCA was able to figure out that Pollux was from Montreal thanks to a microchip with veterinary information implanted in her neck.

The agency said without the chip it's unlikely they could have tracked the family down. But what remains a mystery is how the dog ended up 4,500 kilometres away.

"The family has no connections here on the West Coast, so how she got from there to here, really only she knows," said Sarah Gerow of the SPCA.

A non-profit organization has volunteered to cover the $400 flight cost to bring Pollux home to her family.

Robitaille's seven-year-old son, Antoyne, can't wait to see her.

"I'll be very happy and I'll play with her a lot," he said.

Robitaille said she tried to keep the spirits of her children up during the dog's absence by imagining she'd ended up with a nice family, with a nice big yard and friendly children.

As for how the dog travelled all the way across the country, she still isn't sure, but said the pooch – who hates being wet -- could have hid inside a boxcar at a local train yard to get out of the rain that day.

She's also entertaining the idea the dog has been living with someone else this whole time.

"Maybe a trucker saw her on the street, she was alone and he was alone. Maybe a family adopted her and moved to B.C. and then she ran away again," she said.

The dog will be put on a flight from B.C. back to Montreal within the next few days.