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Virginia Beach man reunites dog with owner after tornado

Posted at 6:50 PM, May 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-02 18:50:50-04

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - It’s a Friday many won’t soon forget…

On March 31 three tornadoes hit parts of our viewing area. An EF-2 touched down in the Landstown section of Virginia Beach. It had many scrambling to find a safe place including a pup named Izzy caught outside when the twister hit.

We aired the story of the missing dog on News 3 at 11.

“I had just watched News 3 and seen the footage of the dog, and I walked out back and seen her and I knew it was the dog,” said Wes Warstler.

Wes’ back was badly injured in a training accident while on active duty in the Army and just moving around is painful, but he was determined to get Izzy back to her owner even though she was scared and kept running away.

His wife Sarah watched Wes jump into action. “He was diligent, he was out there for quite some time “

"She needed to be found and I was going to make sure to do it,” Wes said.

He did! And Izzy’s owner was so grateful to have her back home.

“They say a dog is a man’s best friend but this is like our child,” Brandon Iburd, Izzy's owner said.

News 3 partnered with Southern Bank to award Wes with a People Taking Action award and a $300 gift card.