Dave Sowers' head-on car collision while on vacation in Yellowstone was traumatic enough: He was airlifted and broke his arm, leg, and ribs. But he awoke to the news that his dog Jade had fled from park rangers who tried to pull her from the car, and was nowhere to be found. What followed was a 42-day search—complete with fliers, a few dozen volunteers, and GoFundMe and Facebook pages—for the 18-month-old Australian shepherd, largely headed up by Sowers' girlfriend, Laura Gillice, reports the Missoulian.
But in the end, it was Gillice, on a walk with her own dog, Laila, who spotted Sowers' canine pal near Canyon Village. "She just came running to me, like ‘Where’ve you been mom?'" says Gillice. When the trio returned to the hotel where Sowers was staying, she says, a "hugfest" ensued. "A lot of people have just dedicated their weekends to looking for her," says Sowers. "It’s amazing, we didn’t think we’d ever see her again." (More Yellowstone National Park stories.)