When an adorable 7-year-old border collie managed to run away from a hotel room in Montana, her owners Carole and Verne King were absolutely devastated. The pup named Katie was presumed to be scared and rescuers thought that she was lost in the large forest area near Glacier National Park.
Days and weeks passed, but it was clear that owners Carole and her husband Verne would never stop looking for her.
The dog managed to run away after she was left alone for a while in a hotel room in Kalispell; it’s still unclear how Katie was able to escape at the moment. However, there was a storm going on at that time, and it’s likely that the four-footer was scared by the fierce sounds and lightning and escaped in a panic reaction.
Not having Katie around was absolutely unbearable for the poor couple.
“Every night going to bed, it was gut-wrenching,” Carole said to the New York Times. “Is she warm? Did she get to eat today? It tore us up.”
There was no evidence that the poor dog was hurt or worse, so they kept looking. Carole and Verne were thankful that plenty of local residents wanted to assist them, and they’ve printed out and distributed hundreds if not thousands of flyers.
After a while, they even bought night-vision goggles as well as infrared cameras with tracking ability.
That way, they were also able to search for Katie at night, and the cameras were meant as an assist. The couple even went back to their farm and carried horse manure around, hoping that Katie would somehow be able to recognize the scent and get back to them.
Carole’s boss at the US postal office was understanding of the situation, but Carole also knew that she couldn’t keep looking for Katie all the time if she wanted to keep her job.
That’s when she made the decision to quit her job in the hopes of finding her dog.
“Katie was just more important to me,” she added.
“I am going home to care for your brothers and sister (the couple’s two other dogs as well as a cat)”, he wrote. “Instead of saying goodbye, I would rather say, ‘See you soon.”
After 50 days, Carole started feeling somewhat hopeless.
“I wasn’t ready to go, but I was thinking, What else can I do?”
However, her husband managed to convince her to look for Katie for the rest of the week.
Seven days later, a local resident spotted Katie, and not much later, the pup was also sighted by a couple. After all these days, Carole had hope again.
Luckily, the couple was quickly able to notify Carole and she rushed over to the scene immediately.
The reunion was absolutely emotional and heartwarming.
“All I could think about was, ‘I’m done. I got her,” she told.
“I was crying, I was holding onto her, wrapped her up in a bear hug. I couldn’t get her in the car fast enough to close her in so I wouldn’t lose her again.”
Unfortunately, Katie was severely dehydrated and malnourished. She weighed about 15 pounds lighter than before and had to be taken to an emergency vet. Luckily, the four-footer is now doing just fine, she was likely rescued just in time.
Carole is most surprised by the incredible warmth that the community in Kalispell has given her.
“We can’t believe that community up there,” she said. “I got out of it sheer kindness from people — from a stranger to a stranger.”
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