Dog Who Walked 40 Miles Back to Family Has New Home in Texas
Dog Travels 40 Miles To Find Her Way Back To The Woman She Loves
"It was a miracle ... I never stopped looking for her" 💓😍
When Seneca Krueger first picked up her foster dog Zelda last year, she could never accept predicted the remarkable journey the dog would one day make to exist with her over again.
Krueger, who works as a psychotherapist, is a domestic dog foster mom who specializes in helping rescued dogs learn to trust people once again. She's fostered 30 dogs so far, simply Zelda was an especially hard case.
"She came with anti-anxiety medications," Krueger told The Dodo. "Zelda paced. All day long she was either pacing or hiding."
Krueger noticed that Zelda seemed calmest when on a leash, so she began tether preparation her — and slowly the skittish dog began to open up. "When I was home, she was attached to me," Krueger said. "Over the course of two weeks of tether training, I had likewise weaned her off of her anti-anxiety medications, and the pacing had decreased. She was even willing to come up out of hiding on her own for brief periods of time."
After two months of living with Krueger and her 2 family dogs, Zelda finally wagged her tail. At four months, she began to bawl and play — though she still struggled with unexpected noises and when visitors dropped by.
Still, Krueger knew that she had helped Zelda as much equally she possibly could, and information technology was time to let her become. "Equally Zelda began to gain a niggling more confidence, I decided it was fourth dimension for her to notice her forever habitation," Krueger said. "This is what you are supposed to do every bit a domestic dog foster; assistance them adjust and and then happily say goodbye as they go and alive their best lives."
Krueger drove Zelda twoscore miles to her new dwelling house, but parting with her was more difficult than she predictable. "I had to pull over to the side of the route because I couldn't see through my tears," Krueger said. "For the first time in my 12 years of dog fostering, I felt like I had given away my dog."
X days after maxim goodbye, Krueger received the phone call that every dog owner dreads — Zelda had gone missing after slipping her ternion. Krueger immediately jumped in the machine to brainstorm searching for her.
An all-volunteer dog search team called START (Search, Runway and Retrieval Team) had also gotten discussion of Zelda's disappearance. The team fix feeding stations and trail cams around the surface area, and sightings of Zelda began to pour in.
As temperatures dropped below zero, Krueger refused to requite upwards on her search. "The coldest days were the days I spent the most time searching because I was desperate to get Zelda warm and safe," Krueger said. "[I] spent hours out in the freezing common cold, following canis familiaris tracks through ravines, frozen swamps and fields."
Over 2 months later, Krueger got discussion that Zelda had been spotted in Minneapolis, halfway betwixt the dog's new abode and her foster home.
But so did Krueger realize that Zelda was trying to make her way dorsum to her.
The adopters surrendered Zelda back to Wags and Whiskers Brute Rescue, the organization that set upward the adoption, and Krueger was thrilled to have her dog back — if only on paper. "She was mine once more, and I was more than determined than always to find her," Krueger said.
Ii weeks later, Krueger received news that Zelda had been spotted nearly her home. She put out feeding stations around her house and began dumping dirty laundry on the front backyard in hopes that the aroma would coax Zelda back to safe.
A couple reached out to Krueger to let her know that they had been feeding a very skittish domestic dog who looked similar Zelda. Merely after so long, Krueger didn't desire to go her hopes upwardly. "Although I really wanted this dog to be my Zelda, I knew that if at that place was a lost, scared dog out there on the streets, we had to help information technology," Krueger said. "Fifty-fifty if it wasn't the canis familiaris that I knew and loved, and missed so much."
Finally, the couple was able to trap the emaciated dog and called Krueger in the early hours of the morning to permit her know. Inside the cage, Krueger saw a small, nervous dog, who barely resembled the Zelda she in one case knew. But when the director of Commencement arrived, a quick scan of the dog'due south chip confirmed the impossible.
Afterward over three months on the run, Zelda had constitute her mode home.
"It was a miracle, and what else do you lot do in the face of a miracle? I sobbed," Krueger said. "I apologized to Zelda for non recognizing her. I touched her for the first fourth dimension in 97 days. I assured her that she was going home forever and that I never stopped looking for her."
Zelda has been adjusting well to being at home, and couldn't exist happier to be with her mom again.
"She has become my Velcro dog, and is never more than than a few feet away from me at all times," Krueger said. "My other dogs are happy to have her back equally well and groom her a lot."
For Zelda, this family is forever. "I never could take imagined that the whole time I was searching for Zelda, she was searching for me, also," Krueger added. "Zelda is officially my dog. But let'due south be honest, information technology's non similar I had a choice. She is very persistent."
Source: https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/dog-walks-40-miles-back-to-her-foster-mom
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