Planning to take his dog to the vet, Tim Paul never made it. The boxer Jade, rescued by Paul and wife Laura Wilderman in 2022, ran from Paul's car as he stopped roughly a half-hour drive from his home in Wyoming, as the Washington Post reports. Spooked by machinery, the dog ran deep into the Park County wilderness, home to grizzly bears and mountain lions. For seven weeks, "we spent every single waking moment trying to find her," Wilderman tells the Post, noting she took a leave from work so she could search continually. The couple put out missing posters and radio ads, even hired a scent-tracking dog, while offering a $1,500 reward for the dog's return. Still no sign of Jade.
A former breeding dog, Jade wasn't well socialized and "always was a little skittish," bolting at the slightest sound, says Wilderman. And she was stressed on the day she took off, suffering a bad reaction to an allergy medication. But just when the couple started to consider the possibility Jade was gone for good, they got a call. A ranch worker who'd heard about the search spotted Jade on a trail camera, chewing on an animal carcass. Paul and Wilderman set up a humane trap, then learned of a nearby cattle carcass, sure to attract grizzlies.
In a further show of perseverance, Wilderman arranged for the carcass to be moved, per the Post. Her efforts paid off. On Tuesday, exactly seven weeks after disappearing, Jade was safely caught. "I can't believe it's actually her and she survived," Wilderman tells the Post. "It's a miracle," adds Ryan Lawler, a local sheriff's deputy who volunteered three days of his time to search with a drone. Jade was a little frail and had worms, but was otherwise healthy. Indeed, "she's got a pep in her step," says Wilderman, who says she gained "a lot of new friends through this whole process." (An NBA player helped a woman reunite with a dog stolen from her years before.)
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