Lost and found

Bailey was a lot cleaner, warmer and drier after being rescued by Bonnie Doty of Friends of Strays. Bailey was lost Dec. 24 when the car he was riding in was in an accident, but Doty caught him after spotting him along Interstate 80 on Dec. 28. (Photo contributed)

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PRINCETON — It was Christmas Eve, and a family from Omaha was passing through Bureau County somewhere west of Princeton when the accident happened.

A slippery road, sliding vehicles, and the car ended up in the ditch.

Emergency personnel responded, and the family was taken to Perry Memorial Hospital before being released. Everyone was all right, but there was a problem.

Bailey, the family’s Shih Tzu, was lost during the accident.

Joanne Henkins of Princeton was on duty in the emergency room when the family was brought in, and she offered to help.

“I told them that we’d put it on the radio and call the animal shelter and Bureau County Animal Control, and if we found the dog, that I’d take care of him until they got back,” Henkins said.

Henkins kept in contact with the family, and after a few days, they had given up hope that the dog was going to be alive.

Then came the morning of Dec. 28.

Bonnie Doty, director of Friends of Strays, decided to go shopping in the Quad Cities with her husband. She was looking out the window, at nothing in particular, when suddenly something caught her eye.

“I saw the dog up on a hill,” she said.

Now, Doty knew about the missing dog from Henkins, but she wasn’t really looking for him as the car rolled along.

“I figured the dog was history, living in the cold, and with all the coyotes,” she said.

After the car stopped, Doty walked back and called the dog, but he wouldn’t come. She followed him for about half a mile, down the ditch and up the hill, but no luck.

“He was shivering and so scared,” she said.

Doty figured the dog was hungry, so she asked her husband to get some granola bars out of the car, which she threw to the dog. Still no luck.

The dog had gone under a fence and was backed into a corner, growling and snarling. So Doty climbed the fence, and was able to throw her jacket over him and capture him.

Doty took the dog back to Friends of Strays and called Henkins, who was surprised and excited to hear the dog was still alive.

Henkins drove to the shelter to pick up the dog, who was dirty, hungry and scared, and still not too thrilled about all of these strangers. Henkins wrapped the dog in a blanket, and let her grandson watch the dog on the trip back to her house.

“My grandson Noah was holding the dog and petting it and singing to it, trying to calm it down,” Henkins said.

Henkins and her family sat on the floor with Bailey for awhile before giving him a bath.

“He was covered with burrs, sticks and leaves, and he was dirty,” Henkins said.

Henkins called the family, who were thrilled and amazed to hear their dog was alive, and they came to Henkins’ house to pick him up the next day.

“I’m not sure who was happier, them or the dog,” Henkins said.

After the family arrived back in Omaha, they sent Henkins an e-mail.

“It said, ‘We will never forget you guys, that’s for sure. We are pretty cynical “big city” people who think people don’t go out of their way anymore to help anyone, but you proved us wrong and you, your family and the city of Princeton are our Christmas miracle,’” Henkins said.

To this day, Doty still has no idea how she saw the dog.

“He was the same colors as the dry grasses and snow,” she said.

But she knows it was a good thing that she did see him when she did.

“He was so exhausted and so frightened, he couldn’t go any farther,” she said.

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