Dog Missing Over New Year's Happily Returned

Heather English feared the worst as she lay awake on the night of Jan. 1. It was a cold night, with a light snow but a strong wind which she could hear inside her home near Willow Road and Lochhaven Road where she lived with her 3-year-old son Louie Thibeau, boyfriend Craig Thibeau, and an older, friendly dog named Mac who got along beautifully with her family.

It had been a long Sunday for English, who worked hard and came home feeling far lonelier than usual. Mac had gone missing, she realized as she came home from a New Year's Eve party in the early morning hours. English was scared that Louie would never see the 11-year-old German Shepherd mix again.

Mac is the oldest of seven dogs at her house and as she prepared to drop Louie off at his grandparents house for the night to attend a New Year's Eve party with friends Downriver, English noticed that a younger, border collie mix named Devious who suffers from epilepsy was acting the way that he does before she has a seizure. 

English brought all of her dogs inside at that point, where they would be baby-gated to the basement for the night. In her haste and focused on the health of the younger dog, English said, she didn't count the seven dogs as she normally would. Mac was left outside as English and Thibeau left for the night.

She left for the party not thinking anything was wrong. Upon ringing in the New Year and picking up Louie from grandma's, she returned and realized the big mistake.

"It was 2:30 in the morning and my senior dog was nowhere to be found," she said.

So started the beginning of 2012 for English, who stayed up late on the phone with police and fire officials, and emergency room veterinarians. Knowing well that daylight hours are at a premium in January, she woke up on little sleep the next morning, hit the web, posting to Facebook that her dog was missing. By the time she had rounded up five friends in three cars to patrol the neighborhood subdivisions by 10 a.m., she was astonished by how much the story had been "shared" online.

It went on like that all day — posting signs throughout the neighborhood and keeping Louie in good spirits as the story was networked through Southeastern Michigan-based pet finding Facebook page For the Love of Louie (no relation), with total strangers leaving comments of support which English took to heart. She felt like she had exhausted all outlets, but was forced to try and sleep amid that howling wind, still unsure of what would happen.

"The whole time he was gone we kept telling ourselves that he was somewhere safe and warm. This is what kept us going," English said.

She finally did get some sleep and woke up Monday morning feeling a specific sense of dread — if the dog could not be found by the end of the day Monday, perhaps, he would not be found at all. 

Craig had gone out to continue the search alone, as English stayed home with Louie, to get him ready for what she had anticipated to be a long day beginning at another vet's office.

She was just about to leave when she heard her son scream, "You found Mac!" Craig had walked in the door behind the dog, who gallantly marched through the hallways — his hallways. With tears streaming down her face, Craig explained the story of how neighbors had in fact kept Mac safe and warm on that chilly night.

"(Mac) walked about a mile down the road and found a New Year's Eve party. The very nice people who had found Mac said it was about 9 at night when this friendly brown dog came waltzing into their party with some of their guests, just like he had been invited!

These nice people took such good care of my old guy they even let him sleep in the bed with them. They called the police department on Monday morning and the police gave them Craig's phone number," she said.

What struck English most, she said, was that to people reading online, she was little more than a dog owner living in West Bloomfield — yet, when they found out that her dog may be in trouble, they sprang into action in an efficient way online, offering support and prayers.

"It's times like this where I'm reminded ... just how much a community will get together to help when it's needed," she said.