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Dog Stolen From 3-Year-Old Boy Who Suffers From Seizures

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A local woman says her son's dog helped with his medical problems until someone stole that dog.

But Chaunte Smith of Fineview is hoping someone will step forward to help.

Caden Smith, 3, keeps asking for his furry friend, a Maltese named Diesel. And to Caden's mom, Diesel is more than just a dog.

"My son has been diagnosed with seizures for about a year now, and since Diesel came into his life, they've been best friends," said Smith.

Although Diesel has never had any special training, she says he can somehow sense when something is wrong.

"He pre-warns me of things that are going to happen with Caden as far as his temperature rising and him about to go into a seizure. He barks he gets my attention he runs from Caden to me."

Last Friday evening, she took the dog out behind her apartment building, as Smith stayed just around the bend.

"It was raining pretty hard," said Smith. "I didn't want to get wet. You know, he runs out here, and he comes back, you know, and that day he did not come back."

The area is fenced in except for a set of steps, and she says some kids and a couple adults came to her later to say they saw someone at the bottom of the steps scoop Diesel up.

"A white female, black truck, got out of the car, put him in the car, and rode up the hill," said Smith.

There are security cameras in the area, but it's not known if they captured anything.

Diesel had a tag with his name, a blue collar and a bell.

She hopes the woman returns the dog.

Smith says she's filed a police report and has checked area shelters as well animal control.

UPDATE (April 23, 2015) --

Caden and his dog have been reunited.

After our report aired Wednesday night, the woman who found Diesel contacted the family and dropped off the dog at the police station.

"She [saw] the newscast last night and wanted to return him," said Smith. "A touching story - a boy and his dog - what can you expect."

The woman found the dog on the street and had tried to find his owners several different ways before seeing our report last night.

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