When a tornado swept through central Illinois on Nov. 17, it took Jacob Montgomery's 6-month-old pitbull with it. Or so it seemed.

The tornado destroyed Montgomery's third-floor apartment in the Dexter Commons Apartment Complex in Washington, Ill.

Montgomery posted photos of Dexter in an online ad, but as time ticked on, the hope of finding Dexter dwindled.

Nine days later, though, Montgomery was reunited with his dog when an employee of the apartment complex came across the dog in a pile of rubble inside one of the buildings, according to the Huffington Post.

The malnourished, but otherwise unharmed dog, was coaxed out of the rubble with a hot dog, The Associated Press reports.

Montgomery then got word that his dog was alive and well through Facebook.

"I am lucky. All I had in my apartment is gone, but my dog was all I really had to worry about," Montgomery said on the Illinois National Guard's Facebook page. Montgomery is a MP in the Guard and also an asset protection manager for Walmart when not working his Guard duties.

Now he and Dexter are staying with friends in nearby Peoria, Ill. — where Montgomery was when the tornado hit — until the pair can find a new home.