Nani is a playful terrier mix.
Her kennel card at the shelter described her as happy-go-lucky, and cheerful.
"I could tell she had a good owner at some point, because she knew all her commands, she could walk on a leash just fine,” Anne Sedany, Nani’s former owner, said.
Sedany owned Nani for just three weeks.
She adopted her from the San Diego Humane Society and said they bonded right away.
"The first night I took her home, they're always nervous, but she hopped in my bed and slept next to me,” she tells NBC 7.
A few weeks later, Anne got a call from a micro-chip company saying Nani's original owners were looking for her. Confused, and upset, Anne agreed to call the family.
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They exchanged pictures of Nani, and Anne said she immediately knew she had their dog.
"He was a military family that lived in Chula Vista. They have kids. So if that's their dog, I wanted to give her back. That wasn't a question in my mind,” she says.
NBC7 called the Humane Society to find out why they'd given Sedany a dog that belonged to a different family. They said Nani was transferred to them from the Chula Vista Animal Shelter because she had been hit by a car, had a fractured pelvis and needed medical care.
Sedany believes during Nani's six-week recovery, there must have been some lapse in communication.
"I know they're busy, they have a lot of dogs coming through, it's probably just not enough time, not enough funding, something like that, but that's a really important thing to be making sure that you're not adopting out dogs that someone is still looking for them,” Sedany adds.
The San Diego Humane Society says it was the Chula Vista Animal Shelter's responsibility to follow up with the micro-chip, not theirs.
NBC 7 reached out to the shelter, but did hear back from them immediately.
