- Lost dog Blue was reunited with his owners after he was found in a subway station on December 6.
- Good Samaritan James Dineen originally thought two women on a bench were his owners before he took him in.
- Dineen and his colleagues all took turns caring for Blue until his owners showed up.
A beagle lost in a New York City subway station has gone home for the holidays.
The beagle named Blue, found by MTA employee James Dineen on a southbound D train platform in Brooklyn, was reunited with his family on December 11.
Blue, who had no leash, “shivered and cried and froze” as he ran to Dineen on December 6.
Dineen originally thought that two women on a bench were Blue's owners before she decided to help the dog herself.
“I knew I had to do something,” Dineen said.
MTA employee James Dineen found Blue on a southbound D train platform in Brooklyn on December 6
The painter took Blue out of the subway station, and the dog eventually “fell in love” with all forty of Dineen's colleagues.
“He was running around like a newborn puppy, playing with everyone, going between his feet and just rolling on his stomach,” Dineen said.
“I think he just knew he was around people he could trust.”
Dineen didn't know how long Blue was lost, but he was sweet and hungry and “ate everything he saw.”
The workers took Blue to the police station to see if he had a microchip – an electronic chip that can be implanted into animals to help their owners find them.
Blue did have a microchip, but that didn't help as there were no registered owners in the system.
The dog 'fell in love' with all of Dineen's colleagues, who took turns caring for him in their homes in New York and New Jersey
MTA workers posted on the Lost and Found Pets in Brooklyn Facebook page the same day Dineen found him.
The employees then took turns caring for him at their homes in New York and New Jersey.
Shortly after reposting Blue's information on December 8, the workers received a call from the owners who had seen it on Facebook.
Dineen and his colleagues took Blue to a vet to have his chip scanned, and luckily it matched the owners.
Once the lucky owners picked up the beagle, MTA employees learned Blue's real name.
Blue's owners contacted MTA workers after seeing a Facebook post on the Lost and Found Pets in Brooklyn Facebook page and were officially reunited on December 11.
The painter found their reunion 'touching' and could empathize with the owners' feelings about the loss of Blue.
'My dog just passed away a year ago. It's the same size dog. … If any of us have lost an animal, you want it back,” he said PEOPLE.
He added: 'You can't sleep. You're just confused.'
Dineen was happy to know that everything turned out well in the end and that it was 'a nice feeling'.
'Sometimes it doesn't work out well. And this one, this was a good story,” he said.