A Monmouth County woman discovered that five months after she thought her aging dog was put to sleep, that the dog was actually still alive.

Keri Levy says that she received an anonymous call Saturday from someone who told her that her dog Caesar was never euthanized, but that a veterinary tech took the dog home.

“It broke my heart in a way like my heart has never been broken,” Levy says.

Howell police say that the tech at the Briarwood Veterinary Hospital did not want to see the dog put down, so she kept it at her home.

The hospital's new owner, contacted Dr. George Menez, who admitted to Levy and Howell police that the dog was in fact still alive. Menez helped reunite them one last time.

“The doctor said his bones were deteriorating, his body was eating his muscle mass,” Levy says.

Another veterinarian, Dr. Maureen Kubisz told Levy that Caesar would need to be put down this time to finally end his suffering.

“It’s hard enough when you have to decide when a pet should pass, but then to deal with that twice for the same pet, it’s just it's unthinkable,” Kubisz says.

Investigators say that they are looking into what, if any, care the dog received for the last five months while it was living with the tech. They can then decide if any charges will be brought against her.

“We are very concerned about its well-being and did it suffer in those five months,” says Monmouth County SPCA investigator Ross Licitra. “That's the direction the county SPCA is heading."

Levy says that the hardest part about the ordeal was breaking the news to her children a second time.

“I had to come home and tell my children their dog was alive and that we had to put him asleep and he really was in heaven this time,” she says.

Howell Township police say that Dr. Mendez could be charged with theft, while the vet tech could also face animal cruelty charges.