Woman quits job in 60-day and 300km search for lost dog

Katie the Border Collie was lost in the Montana woods for 57-days. Photo / unsplash, Tadeusz Lakota

One woman's dogged determination has paid off after a 57-day search.

In July, Carole King of Washington State in North West America had been holidaying in Montana when her Border Collie, Katie, went missing.

Heartbroken, the woman could not return without the Collie and quit her job in order to search for the missing dog.

Speaking to The Columbian, King said she and her husband had left their hotel room on the evening of July 20 for a meal but on returning the 7-year-old dog was nowhere to be found.

After frantically searching the room for leads of where her dog might have gone.
Asking the front desk reception, she was shocked to hear the dog had been allowed to walk straight out through the automatic doors.

"I said to the clerk, 'please tell me you have my dog.' The clerk says 'no, she left about four, four and a half hours ago,'" said King.

Her and her husband spent the next night searching the woods for her dog but with no use.

A thunderstorm made this difficult and, King thought, might have scared the dog further away. That was just the first of many nights in a hunt that saw the couple posting 500 fliers and surfing the web for missing pets Facebook groups. The couple also set trail cameras in parts of the woods where Katie the dog might be lost.

Then after almost 60 days of perseverance King received a phone call.

A man from Montana was calling in response to one of her fliers, saying he had seen a dog matching the description.

King went alone to meet the caller and have yet another search for the dog.

After a stroll around the area she spotted her dog in the bushes. After 57 days apart Katie came straight to the call of her name.

"You know, you love your dog so much and you just have hope, and you know she's out there searching for you," King told CNN. "You just can't give up."

Having set up a social media page to help track down the missing dog, King posted a thank you to all the 183 members who had helped look for the dog:

"I truly appreciate everyone whether I met you, you posted, shared, hung flyers or just gave us encouraging words to continue on. I love and read all the text and messages. They are held in our hearts. Thank you, the king family," she wrote.

Shortly after an emotional video was shared of Katie the dog being driven back from her time in the woods and finally reunited with the rest of the family.