A dog has been reunited with its owners in the United States after going missing for more than three years.

Lola, a black Labrador, vanished from a fenced garden in 2017 when Debra and Steve Mejeur, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, were visiting a friend in Illinois.

The couple returned to the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village for about a month after Lola went missing. They posted notices, got help from volunteers and hired a professional pet searcher. But they had no luck finding their pet.

However, authorities in DuPage County, Illinois, received a call last week from a couple who had noticed Lola over the past few years going into a forest preserve. They had been leaving food for the dog and earned her trust.

A microchip revealed Lola’s owners.

“I feel like I’m in a dream right now,” Mrs Mejeur said when the couple were reunited with Lola at DuPage County Animal Services.

“I still had an ounce of hope, I guess, but the majority of me was thinking she had already crossed the rainbow bridge. I was just completely stunned.”

Lola wagged her tail when she smelled her old blanket. Of course, no one knows how the dog survived for three years.

“If she could talk,” Mrs Mejeur joked.