Photo: Licking County Humane Society
An Ohio couple has been reunited with their rescue dog Maggie after the animal spent 17 days lost in the freezing wilderness.
Maggie survived a fight with coyotes and lived off of creek water and corn scattered for deer before she was ultimately brought home with the help of a community effort, according to theNewark Advocate.
Judy and Walter Preston, who have been married for 45 years, adopted Maggie last month from LCHS after one of the couple’s other dogs died from illness in August. The Prestons even brought in their 13-year-old dog Gracie to meet her new sister before finalizing the adoption on Jan. 13.
The next day, the family brought Maggie to their machine shop, where they secured her in a crate while they headed out for their lunch break. By the time they had returned, the dog had escaped her cage and the previously-locked door to the business.
“It was literally the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen,” said Judy, who theorized that Maggie squeezed her way out of the cage before putting all her weight on the lever of the door to push it open: “…and off she went.”
Judy immediately posted “Lost Dog” signs and contacted neighbors, in addition to reaching out to the LCHS, which shared aphotoof Maggie on Facebook and sent humane agent Paula Evans to help canvass the area near the Preston home.
“Lost dog: Do NOT ‘track,’ approach, or call out. Maggie is in flight mode,” Judy’s flyers warned.
Maggie’s owners also received help fromLost Pet Recoveryin Columbus, which placed live traps with feeding stations and cameras in strategic areas. Maggie appeared on the cameras several times before her recovery — even fighting off coyotes during one encounter.
Maggie was ultimately captured at one of the feeding stations, and other than appearing to be “very, very skinny,” according to Taylor, she was uninjured and healthy.
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Judy got the call while tending to her horses in the barn. “I lost it. I completely lost it. I’m standing in the barn sobbing,” she said, noting that she wasn’t able to retrieve Maggie until the next day after a veterinarian examined the canine and put her on a nutritional plan to help her regain the weight she lost.
“Community education is key to get dogs who are missing back in their homes,” said Evans. “You can’t do anything without signs, sightings, and people knowing not to chase. When a dog gets loose like that, it goes into flight and survival mode. It might not even recognize the owner.”
source: people.com
