It was an unexpected phone call for Aranza Delgado — an Albuquerque woman, more than 800 miles away from Corpus Christi, who had given up long ago on the search for their family dog.

“Wait, you’re not in Albuquerque, are you?” Delgado said to Peewee’s Pet Adoption World & Sanctuary, recalling her conversation. “And they’re like, ‘You’re not in Texas? … We’re in Corpus Christi and your dog is here.’

“Wait, what?”

Although it was confusing at first, their 10-year-old poodle “Puppies” (pronounced “poopies” — a callback to Jack Black’s 2006 film, Nacho Libre) was in fact picked up at the corner of Greenwood Drive and Baldwin Boulevard by a passerby on Monday. Since he was chipped, the shelter was able to contact Delgado.

“She was pleasantly surprised,” said Peewee’s Pet Adoption World & Sanctuary volunteer Ernie Cochran. “If I can get a dog back to his family, it’s a wonderful thing.”

Although there was some miscommunication at first that the Delgado had a limited window of time and had to pick up Puppies by Tuesday — Cochran said she and the rest of the shelter are than willing to provide their dog with several weeks so that he may be picked up.

Since then, Corpus Christi locals have teamed up with a plan to get Puppies back home to the Land of Enchantment as early as Sunday.