A family in New Jersey was grieving a sudden death and searching for a missing dog at the same time. This week, they got one piece of good news when a 9-year-old girl was reunited with Major, the Cockapoo her father had bought for her birthday.

Javon, 40, from Roselle Park, New Jersey, purchased Major for his daughter’s birthday, according to ABC7.

Before leaving for a vacation abroad, he left the 2-year-old dog with pet sitter Grace Reyes. He was scheduled to pick Major up on Friday, Mar. 20.

But Javon never came home. He died suddenly while on holiday abroad.

After his death, the family did not appear to have Reyes’s contact details and did not know where Major was. With the dog’s whereabouts unknown, the family launched a campaign to find him. Major had been in limbo since Friday.

“We were dealing with the loss of a brother, a father, and a friend,” Javon’s best friend, David, told ABC7 on Tuesday, Mar. 24.

“So, I think dealing with that and then also the loss of potentially our dog Major, I think that’s just really going to, you know, put us in a different space. But if we are able to find out more, just make things just a little, a little better than it is right now.”

The reunion happened after Reyes’s aunt saw a social media post about Major and realised it was the same dog Reyes had been caring for. That allowed her to contact Javon’s family.

“My heart dropped finding out what happened, finding out that his family was worried sick about wondering where Major was,” Reyes told ABC7.

Reyes said her aunt called her on the morning of Tuesday, Mar. 24, and said: “Isn’t this the dog that you take care of all the time, Major?”

Reyes told the outlet she had also been trying to find the family on social media after hearing nothing from Javon.

“[Major] was supposed to be picked up on Friday and so the messages stopped going through on Thursday and I started getting worried,” Reyes said.

After Reyes’s aunt contacted authorities, Major was taken to the Roselle Park Police Department.

The 9-year-old girl, who is dealing with the sudden loss of her father, was then reunited with Major on Wednesday, Mar. 25.

Roselle Park Chief Dominick Frino told ABC7: “I’m a father of two daughters and this just broke my heart when I heard this story.”