4 years ago

Wonder Dog Makes 97 Day Journey Back To Foster Mom After Being Adopted

This adopted German shepherd mix ran away from her new owners and found her way back to her foster mom nearly 30 miles away!

Source: KARE 11/Youtube

Zelda, a six-year-old German shepherd mix, has proved that she is indeed not directionally challenged. It took her 97 days, but she finally made it back to her foster mom.

Zelda’s story began when she arrived at Wags & Whisker animal shelter in Twin Cities, Texas. The shelter was overcrowded, and Seneca Krueger was chosen to foster Zelda. She stayed with Krueger for seven months, and Zelda was reportedly scared of her own shadow most of that time. Krueger said that Zelda didn’t wag her tail for two months and only barked after four months.

After seven months, Krueger, who has fostered between 30 to 40 dogs, believed she had made enough process to be adopted. A family 30 miles away ended up adopting Zelda, but it hit Krueger more than she thought it would.

“Out of 30, 40 foster dogs, what happens is you love them, and then you let them go and you take the next one,” Krueger said. “And with Zelda, I adopted her out and spent three days crying. I felt like I had lost my dog.”

Krueger was notified that Zelda ran away just ten days after she was adopted. She immediately joined the search.

“Three times a week I was out for four or five hours,” she said. “The days where it was 30 below were the days I was most worried about her. I was out all day trying to find her so that she could be warm.”

According to social media posts from the time, there were dozens of sightings all around the area. Krueger thought she would never be found. That’s when she reached out to START for Dogs, a lost pet all-volunteer tracking organization.

Finally, 51 days after the last sighting, someone took a photo through a car window of a German shepherd mix walking along the St. Mary’s Cemetery in Minneapolis. Krueger and the START for Dogs team began immediately to follow the lead. “I think I put 127 flyers in that neighborhood,” she said. Krueger believed that Zelda was trying to find her way back to her.

Finally, someone got a picture of a dog that looked like Zelda just two blocks from her house.

“I couldn’t sit still,” Krueger said. “I was just out – I would walk for an hour and come back and see if she was here, and immediately, back out for another hour.”

Meanwhile, a few miles from Krueger’s house, Zelda had wandered into an alley of some neighbors, Mike and Susan Willis. They began to feed her, and she kept coming back. START for Dogs set up a trail camera and caught the dog on camera and believed it to be Zelda. One night, they set a trap next to the food.

At 4:30 in the morning, Krueger got a call, and she went to see if it was her lost pup. Although she was thinner and lighter in color, it was Zelda after her long 97-day journey.

Krueger officially adopted Zelda.

“I think we believe we choose dogs, but I really think it’s dogs who choose us, and I think that’s what happened,” Krueger says.

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