Reunited: Missing dog found after 8 months, 175 miles away
After missing for eight months ago and traveling 175 miles, a dog was reunited this weekend with his Massachusetts family.
Tom Woollacott told The Bangor Daily News in Maine that Kaiser, a 5-year-old king shepherd, disappeared in June 2018 after jumping over a wall while a woman was dog-sitting him.
For the first three or four weeks, Woollacott told the newspaper he drove 1,500 miles "every day" searching for his dog. The 130-pound dog had been previously spotted in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
"I talked to a lady who had walked into her horse barn," Woollacott told the paper. "She said, ‘I thought it was a wolf.’ But by the time I got there, he was gone.”
Not even a drone could find Kaiser, but Woollacott told the Daily News he never gave up hope.
In January, a woman in Maine found out a dog had eaten half the meat she stored on her porch, according to a Missing Dogs Massachusetts post. She fed him for three weeks before animal control brought him to Responsible Pet Care of Oxford Hills in South Paris, a no-kill shelter, on Feb. 6.
The dog, later to be identified as Kaiser, acted timid and shy, the shelter posted on Facebook, and staff scanned for a microchip. When they didn't find any tags, the shelter shared his photos.
"We had A TON of comments, shares, likes and people who are willing to give this giant, magnificent animal a new chance at life," the shelter wrote. "But, we had to wait to see if he would be claimed or not."
Woollacott phoned Thursday afternoon, The Bangor Daily News reported, and identified the dog's features and provided teeth photos. Shelter board member and volunteer Morgan Miles told the paper the dog looked right at her when she called him Kaiser.
Holding back tears, Woollacott drove through snow the next day to pick him up, the newspaper reported. Video shows Kaiser jumping on Woollacott and wagging his tail.
“He clearly is the only one who knows truly what happened,” Miles told the Daily News. “Somebody could have picked him up or he could easily have traveled that distance himself over eight months. Honestly, I think he meandered all the way by himself.”
Kaiser spent Sunday morning playing with Woollacott and his kids, 4-year-old Connor and 16-month-old Leah, the newspaper reported.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Reunited: Missing dog found after 8 months, 175 miles away
