Carol Schrader thought her beloved gray miniature poodle was gone forever after a man took the keys to her Ford Explorer at the Puyallup Library and drove off with the dog inside on March 21.

“I imagined all the horrible things that might have happened to him,” she said. “Was he sold? Was he still trapped inside the truck?”

But on Tuesday night, she and her 4-year-old pet, Jaqson, were reunited at the Puyallup police station after detectives found the thief, questioned him and recovered both SUV and dog.

“It’s like a miracle; I really thought I would never see him again,” Schrader, 69, said.

Puyallup Police Lt. Dave McDonald said Schrader left her keys in the women’s restroom at the library, where another woman allegedly picked them up and passed them onto a 29-year-old man. The man found Schrader’s Ford Explorer in the library parking lot and drove it away with Jaqson inside.

A police investigation revealed the man handed the poodle and Explorer off to an acquaintance in Parkland, who kept the dog until detectives tracked it down in an undercover investigation.

Detectives later found the Explorer nearby after residents called and said it had been sitting there untouched “for two or three weeks,” McDonald said. The SUV’s custom Washington license plate had been replaced with fake California plates when police found it.

The 29-year-old man was booked in Pierce County Jail on investigation of auto theft, theft of a pet and possession of stolen property.

“I hope he stays there for a while,” Schrader said.

The female accomplice has not yet been found, McDonald said. Police have identified the man’s acquaintance but McDonald said he may not face criminal charges, depending on whether he was aware the car and dog were stolen.

Aside from a fur trim, nothing about Jaqson seems to have changed, Schrader said. He appears to have been well cared for in the three weeks that he was away from home.

“He seems happy to be back, though,” she said with a laugh.