When Kate Olson and Curtis Chastain visited family in Missouri, over 1,000 miles from their home in New Hampshire, they launched their canine Walter alongside. A few days sooner than Thanksgiving of 2019, a member of the household took Walter out on a leash, and he slipped out of his collar.
Right away, Walter was missing, someplace faraway from home. Kate and Curtis anxious deeply about their poor pup, described as “anxious” and “startled by his private tail.” How could that canine survive out throughout the woods alone?
A Workforce Of Volunteers Searches For Walter
Kate and Curtis stayed in Missouri for two further weeks, hoping to go looking out Walter in that time. The family put up fliers, created social media posts, spoke to native enterprise householders and animal rescuers, and nonetheless, they couldn’t uncover him.
Sadly, they’d no choice nevertheless to return to New Hampshire, so a rising group of volunteers stepped in to take over the search. Lost Paws Trapping, an Illinois-based nonprofit that traps missing animals, invested throughout the look for Walter. One different group, K9 Rescue Outreach, purchased a lure and cameras.
Gay Arnold of Misplaced Paws Trapping knowledgeable The Dodo:
“We merely hunted and hunted nonstop, seeking tracks, seeking one factor which can level on the market’s a canine hanging in that area. He merely type of vanished after awhile. Nobody seen him, nothing.”
Over the next grueling ten months, Kate and Curtis obtained some tip calls that didn’t in the long run lead to Walter. Kate returned to Missouri in January of 2020 to look in particular person as soon as extra. Based mostly on KSDK, she estimates she spent spherical $1,000 between the fliers and her journeys backwards and forwards from New Hampshire to St. Louis.
An Mandatory Sighting
Collectively along with her baby always on her ideas, Kate in no way gave up hope. Lo and behold, virtually a yr after Walter’s disappearance, she obtained an intriguing message.
In a Facebook post, Kate described the events of November 2020.
“On Tuesday 11/10, I obtained a screenshot on Fb messenger of two pictures of a canine taken from distant in a topic.. it was very exhausting to make out nevertheless there was one factor about the best way during which he was standing.. in my coronary coronary heart I knew it was him.”
It turned out {{that a}} Missouri enterprise proprietor had seen a canine on his security cameras for the earlier six weeks. So, volunteers prepare a feeding station with a digicam to attempt to determine whether or not or not that canine truly was Walter.
“The first night the digicam was out, he didn’t come… the second night… at 12:30am on Friday the thirteenth, he bought right here. He bought right here and ate after which left and bought right here once more and ate some further, he did this about 10-15 cases! And it was 100% my baby boy.”
After a while, Misplaced Paws was able to lure Walter. He was scared, nonetheless it was undoubtedly the right canine. And so, Olson booked but yet another flight from New Hampshire to Missouri.
A Prolonged-Awaited Reunion
When Kate arrived on the scene, she was knowledgeable to technique the lure slowly and start talking. Inside, she seen her scared, barely worse-for-the-wear canine. The canine she had been anxious about for practically a whole yr.
“He was barking like mad after I obtained there nevertheless as rapidly as he seen me, he stopped. It took a few minutes for him to calm down and perceive who I truly was.. nevertheless he sat correct subsequent to me. And via the lure I was able to give him loves after which.. he gave me his paw, like he has so many cases sooner than. Like he knew I appreciated that and he appreciated holding my hand. It was unbelievable.”
Maryanne Martin of Misplaced Paws Trapping witnessed the reunion. She described it to The Dodo:
“He merely snapped out of survival mode and, coated in fleas, smelling horrible, was shifting into between her legs, leaping up and giving her kisses. It was truly explicit.”
Walter Returns To An Indoor, Family Life
Miraculously, this anxious canine not solely survived a whole yr dwelling throughout the Missouri woods, he moreover defied the chances to be one amongst few non-microchipped canine to go missing and return home as soon as extra.
“Now we have now an prolonged freeway to “Common” nevertheless a minimal of we’re capable of start to heal and switch on from this crazy nightmare,” Kate wrote on Fb.
Kate talked about Walter did act considerably frightened in his new home, nevertheless that’s not too completely totally different than he was sooner than his “journey.”
“Walter has been decompressing in a protected home the place no one can startle him or make him actually really feel unsafe. And he’s starting to return to his earlier strategies of being the sweetest, most affectionate pup.”
“Due to all of Walters Warriors, so very lots in your complete continued help. And to all of you who took time to help search, do stakeouts, went door to door, hung fliers, unfold the great phrase of Walter, and most importantly, who in no way gave up on us. You haven’t any thought what it has meant to us this earlier yr, nevertheless we’re eternally grateful.”
Walter’s story offers hope to so many people. Misplaced canine could possibly be very exhausting to get nicely, nevertheless with hope, willpower, and help from devoted volunteers, discovering them is possible.
