Rescue dog reunited with its owners thanks to crowdsourcing on Facebook social : NPR

Hanna Poscente took this selfie moments right after she uncovered Mia, whom she’d been searching for for weeks.

Courtesy of Hanna Poscente

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Courtesy of Hanna Poscente

Hanna Poscente took this selfie times soon after she observed Mia, whom she’d been seeking for for weeks.

Courtesy of Hanna Poscente

For additional than a thirty day period, numerous animal fans across a rugged swath of western Colorado ended up gripped by the same problem: Exactly where is Mia?

The shy, 8-yr-outdated rescue pet, with brown places and floppy ears, was lost in the wintertime chilly.

Her proprietor, Charles Reigies, remembers the moment she disappeared, the working day soon after Xmas. He and his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente, were being driving back again residence to Grand Junction on Interstate 70 in 1 of the first storms of the time. Reigies hit a patch of black ice, and they went swerving. The Jeep crashed on to its facet.

“And the time I came to, she was harm and the pet dog was long gone,” he mentioned.

It was darkish out, and they have been miles from any town, about two several hours from home. An ambulance rushed Poscente to a hospital with a broken neck. As Reigies waited for a tow truck, he kept browsing for Mia in the snow.

But there were no signals of her.

The up coming day, Poscente, now residence, reactivated her Fb account just to submit about Mia. To search for enable. She joined teams devoted to missing and identified animals across the area. Times passed. The posts ended up favored and shared. Strangers in small cities divided by miles of frozen desert, mountains and canyons retained browsing for Mia and putting up daily updates on the internet.

“They have been like their own little village looking for Mia, a puppy they experienced in no way fulfilled before,” Poscente claimed.

And if that village experienced a mayor, it would be Janet Cross, who lives about 20 minutes from the crash web page. She had read that animals will retain returning to in which they’ve lost their individuals. So, 10 times right after the crash, she set up a path camera at the website. She could see that Mia was still coming back twice a working day.

“She’s seeking at the location. She’s searching for her spouse and children. She’s searching skinny,” Cross stated. “So yeah, it was quite heartbreaking.”

It was also hopeful. Mia was alive.

More than the next few of months, people today identified as and messaged with Mia sightings. And Charles and Hanna came back again to verify the crash web site as normally as they could. There were numerous near misses. A single afternoon, they remaining at 5. The digital camera recorded Mia at 7.

“You could convey to she was like, ‘Wait, I smell them,'” Poscente claimed, smiling.

The simple fact they dwell two hrs absent from their crash web page just designed all the things more challenging. Reigies, who discovered Mia at an animal shelter in 2018, held grieving her in excess of and in excess of.

“Just any day we came back empty handed, it was terrible,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Mia’s tale was still being shared continually on Fb. And animal handle had offered Cross a lure, which the company essential her to check every hour. So she did that, parking at a nearby gasoline station among checks.

Getting Mia basically turned her full-time occupation.

“But I just could not give up,” Cross explained. “I just couldn’t give up on her.”

Mia’s operator, Charles Reigies, and his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente.

Stina Sieg/CPR Information

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Stina Sieg/CPR Information

Mia’s owner, Charles Reigies, and his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente.

Stina Sieg/CPR Information

Then points bought much more dire. A deer fence the car crash had wrecked was rebuilt, and numerous of Mia’s on the net followers anxious she was trapped at the rear of it. There were no Mia sightings for eight times.

Finally, Poscente been given a fateful call from a female.

“I am on the lookout at your doggy,” she remembers her saying.

Mia was about 10 miles from exactly where the couple had crashed. A mate drove Poscente, nonetheless in a neck brace, to the space.

That 1st night, Mia acquired terrified off. But they stayed at a close by hotel, and the future morning, Poscente resolved to try out a single additional time. Her mate still left to consider a meeting by cell phone, and Poscente started off going for walks down the prepare tracks as snow fell. She appeared up and to her remaining, and there Mia was, totally camouflaged in the snow and sagebrush.

Mia did not get afraid. She didn’t operate off. She yawned and started out walking towards Poscente, who filmed the moment with her cell cellular phone.

“Hi, newborn, hello!” Poscente states in the movie, her voice hoarse with emotion as Mia ambles nearer. “Oh my God.”

Then the video cuts off, since Mia started off leaping all in excess of her. When they bought house, Mia knocked Reigies off his toes.

“And as before long as I saw her in there, it was more than,” he stated. “It was just tears galore.

Mia’s ribs were demonstrating, and her shorter white fur was filthy, but if not she was the exact: a tiny goofy and fairly silent — until she’s feeding on. And she has performed a ton of feeding on given that she acquired again.

“She’s just a genuine sweet pup,” Reigies said, patting her on her abdomen.

Thanks to the help of several people, Mia produced it property — right after one particular thirty day period and a single day.