Lost Dog from Colorado Walked Roughly 1,200 Miles to Indiana Before Being Reunited with Owners: ‘Happy She Is Home’ (Exclusive)

One pet owner got the surprise of a lifetime when her dog, Diva, who had been missing for two months, turned up roughly 1,200 miles from her home in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Veterinary technicians Maggie Thornberry and Elizabeth Daniele at the Oak Knoll Veterinary Clinic in Rolling Prairie, Ind., first met the dog when a good samaritan brought Diva in after seeing her wandering down the road near their practice. Upon scanning the dog’s chip and contacting her owner, the clinic learned that Diva had been missing for two months and lived four states away.

“I didn’t think I was going to see her again because she’d been gone for two months,” Rodriguez tells PEOPLE. “My first question was, ‘How did she get over there?!’ “

Thornberry and Daniele volunteered to meet Diva’s owner, Maria Rodriguez, halfway at a dog park in Kansas City, Mo., making the eight-hour drive with the scared dog to reunite her with Rodriguez and her fiancé, Charles Green.

“It was a super fulfilling experience,” Thornberry, 22, also tells PEOPLE. “I am applying for veterinary school this month, so I am very excited. The vet field can be so draining emotionally and incredibly hard at times, but it’s moments like these that remind us why we do what we do. It was so heartwarming, and we would do it over again.”

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The adorable dog seemed anxious after being rescued by the practice, but according to Thornberry, “She turned into a completely different dog after seeing her mama!”

The sweet reunion was captured on camera as Diva first saw Rodriguez, with the dog quickly rushing to her side, jumping up to greet her and furiously wagging her tail. The TikTok, shared by Thornberry on Nov. 20, quickly went viral with thousands of pet lovers moved by the touching story.

Rodriguez agrees that Diva recognized her upon her reunion, noting, “She remembered all of us all of who we were. I know dogs remember. Diva is proof to me that dogs do know who their human is.”

“I am so happy she is home,” Thornberry highlights of the ordeal. “I just couldn’t stop thinking about if it was my dog. My dog is my best friend and I hope someone would take care of him the way that I took care of their dog.”

“Diva’s doing really good. She got back in the habit of things,” Rodriguez says of the dog’s current status, adding, “Just seeing her again, I still can’t believe that she’s here. I cried and I prayed and that was my baby and she’s home now.”