WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — After an almost weeklong search, Athena discovered her method residence to her Florida household in time for Christmas Eve and even rang the doorbell.
Athena, a 4-year-old German Shepherd and Husky combine, escaped her residence in Inexperienced Cove Springs, Florida, on Dec. 15, prompting a search among the many neighborhood and close by cities for her. Her proprietor, Brooke Comer, mentioned her household left for church that day and acquired a message from her neighbor with an image of Athena exterior the home.
Comer panicked. Her household rushed residence to search out her collar within the crate and no seen opening Athena might have gotten out from. How she escaped stays a thriller.
The subsequent week’s occasions continued to be an “unbelievable” story for Comer, the place neighbors and neighborhood members from close by cities would contact her from her lacking canine adverts and ship any footage or images the place they could have noticed Athena. Based mostly on all of the alerts Comer acquired, it seemed like Athena made an almost 20-mile (32-kilometer) roundtrip whereas she was lacking.
At each alert, Comer and her household would go to the spot inside minutes and seek for Athena — to no avail.
“She was the hide-and-seek all time grand champion,” Comer mentioned. “With each sighting my coronary heart jumped, and it actually was pleasure after which your coronary heart’s crushed as a result of we had been at all times one step behind.”
The whole search was a terrifying and scary expertise for Comer, who was fearful about the place her already skittish canine might have gone or might have encountered. That was till 2:30 a.m. Christmas Eve, when she acquired a Ring video notification from her doorbell and her different canine started barking.
“I used to be sort of like in a daze, and the canine was barking, and as quickly as I heard that ring, I checked out my cellphone and you possibly can see within the video it was Athena and she or he was leaping on the door, ringing the doorbell,” Comer mentioned.
As quickly as Comer opened the door, Athena bolted inside and went to go lick her son’s face, who was on the sofa half-asleep. After that, she instantly grabbed her ball to play and shortly went to her cage to return to sleep.
Comer mentioned the expertise gave a lot hope due to the neighbors and the massive neighborhood searching for Athena for the previous week. The subsequent plan was to get Athena a full examination, flea and tick remedies and a microchip.
