Carole King and her husband Verne were on vacation when their beloved Border Collie Katie went missing in Minnesota after thunderstorms spooked the pup and she ran off into the night.
Both Carole and Verne attempted to search for the seven-year-old dog but the dense terrain was too difficult to walk through. But they did everything possible to attempt to get Katie back into their lives.
They searched in the surrounding area, posted messages to local Facebook pages and followed up with anyone who claimed they had seen Katie.
They set up animal-tracking cameras, purchased night vision goggles to search for her in the night and even laid items of their clothing in the forest, hoping Katie would discover their scent and find her way back home.
They would tirelessly search abandoned buildings and hand out flyers at local sports games, as well as look through farms to see if there were any animal tracks they could follow.
“Every night going to bed, it was gut-wrenching. Is she warm? Did she get to eat today? It tore us up.”
They would go off every tip and followed up with people even when Katie did not match the description the person was giving.
“In our heart, I would always say, ‘If I didn’t follow up, what if that was her and we didn’t do anything?” Ms. King shared with the NYT.
Mr. King eventually had to head back to their hometown in Spokane, Washington, but Carole decided to stay and quit her job as a postal work to make sure she found her Katie.
“Katie was just more important to me,” Ms. King said. “I just said, ‘I’ll finish this week, and that’s it.'”
That was 37 days after Katie went missing.
Carole continued her search despite every passing day leaving her a little less hopeful. She was about to give up when her husband convinced her to stay with it for just one more week to contemplate if she wanted to be done searching for her best friend.
On day 57 of the search, Carole got a call from someone saying that Katie was in their backyard and Ms. King went over as fast as she could. And by the time she arrived, the dog was gone but Carole was not about to give up.
She then raced around the area until she discovered a group of people walking and asked if they had seen a Border Collie.
They were amazingly able to point to a dog under a tree.
At first, the dog was suspicious of the woman calling out her name but as Carole got closer, the Border collie ran into her arms.
“All I could think about was, ‘I’m done. I got her,'” Ms King said. “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.”
After a quick trip to the vet, it was confirmed that the dog she had found was in fact Katie and the two were able to go back to their home and be reunited with their family.