People like Ali Kooshesh, who spent most of Friday in a drenched poncho, trying desperately to find the dog who comforted his son, Kameron, during leukemia treatments.

"I never really lost hope," Ali Kooshesh said.

People like Pat Nichols, a dog lover touched by the story of Kameron and Kirby, canvassed the South Square area Thursday night with fliers and skipped work Friday to continue the search, calling Kirby's name from the driver's seat of her convertible. "It's a miracle," she said.

People like Chris DiFrancesco, director of the Duke Hospital news office, who thought Friday he'd take a quick swing by South Square, where Kirby had last been seen, on his way back to the office.

"We thought we would help just by getting the word out," he said. "It was kind of a surprise to actually spot the dog."

DiFrancesco acted on a whim, not really expecting to find Kirby. Then he saw the three-year-old wheaten terrier bounding in woods on the exit from U.S. 15-501 onto Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

It was very close to where Kirby had panicked and fled after the SUV he was riding in with Kameron flipped four times Tuesday.

DiFrancesco and a colleague, Tracey Koepke, got out and spent 45 minutes looking.

But Kirby kept running.

So they called Kooshesh, who met them and continued the hunt with Nichols and a few other volunteers.

It was fitting that the lost dog was corralled by some of the people who made the search for him big news -- animal lovers and people touched by the sadness and hope of a little boy who'd been through much.

It was just as fitting that, after all that running, a skittish Kirby finally wound up in Ali Kooshesh's arms.

"Yes, I did find him," he said. "But it wasn't without the help of everybody around."

He wouldn't confess to tears of joy at the climactic moment.

But emotion seeped through as he told what he felt when he finally had Kirby.

"I was sure that, tonight, the whole family was going to be together," he said.

Kameron, 12, sporting a "Lucky Dog" T-shirt at a Friday news conference, said he was ecstatic when he got the news about 3 p.m. Friday.

"When I'm in pain, he can comfort me, just like a little brother can," he said.

His leukemia is under control after treatment at Duke Hospital since October.

Kameron is looking forward to returning home to Santa Rosa, Calif., in May -- with his mom, his dad and his "little brother," Kirby.

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