REGION — After being on the run for two weeks in Farmington and surviving a snow storm, seven-year-old Shih Tzu Rover has made it home to his owners in Anson.

“I never gave up hope, the good ol’ Lord brought him home and one of my friends prayed all of the time he was gone,” Rover’s owner Gertrude Gilbert said in a phone interview.

In late November, Gilbert had been at VIP on Wilton Rd. in Farmington with Rover when he jumped out of the car window to chase another dog.

 “I was right there and I couldn’t catch him,” Gilbert said.

What unfolded over the next two weeks were daily sightings of Rover which were posted on Facebook public groups like Farmington Needs. This caught the attention of Courtney Bryant, a volunteer with the nonprofit organization Maine Lost Dog Recovery.

“Basically, there was a sighting everyday and then there was the storm,” Bryant said in a phone interview. “He wasn’t sighted during the storm because he was hiding which dogs are very known to do.”  

With the nonprofit’s resources, Bryant contacted the Gilberts and those that had spotted Rover. She made lost dog flyers and coordinated with the Farmington Police Station. These were all typical tasks for Bryant who has been a volunteer with Maine Lost Dog Recovery for over a year as a page administrator.

However, Rover was in close proximity to Bryant who lives in Farmington and became her first field case.

For more difficult cases, Maine Lost Dog Recovery field volunteers will set up game cameras, a feeding station and a humane trap in locations where a dog has been spotted.

“What we like to to do with Maine Lost Dog is get a sighting and then put a feeding station down and try to get the dog to keep coming to one place so that we can put a humane trap and try to humanely trap them, especially with a dog that’s majorly skittish and afraid of people,” Bryant said.

Rover was just this type of dog. Farmington residents started to recognize Rover from Facebook posts and try to catch him, but he would always get away.

“I began to know him as ghost dog because we would get a sighting and I’d go to set the feeding station and he was gone, he was long gone,” Bryant said. “And then the next sighting would be a mile away.” 

More than a week passed with each day revealing a new Rover location as people commented on Facebook where they had seen the Shih Tzu. Then Bryant received consistent sighting reports of Rover between North and Court Streets.

“I think he found shelter that he liked, and he had made it through that big rain storm and that big snow storm which were only a few days apart from each other,” Bryant said.

Rover, who had never survived on his own prior to this runaway,  had hunkered down during the Dec. 5 snowstorm that left thousands without power in central and western Maine.

“At that point, I had set up a camera at a house on North Street that I had gotten the homeowner’s permission and there was a compost pile that he was eating out of,” Bryant said. “He was finding food.” 

Rover was recorded on the game camera going inside of the trap Bryant had set and eating the food she had left, but the trap wasn’t set yet.

“We want them to actually go in before we set it, Bryant said. “He went in, ate the food and then left and he only went to that location twice, and then he started going towards the Fairbanks Road.

Rover was finally caught on Sat., Dec. 12, by a young couple who pulled over on the side of the road when they spotted the lost dog. Another man recognizing Rover also pulled over and helped to corral Rover against the snow-covered guardrail.

Bryant was contacted and met the couple in the garage of a house on North Street owned by a woman who had been actively following Rover sightings on Facebook.

“Any kind of opening, Rover would go right for it. He was a crazy, flight risk,” Bryant said. “So we closed all of the doors and we all put gloves on because he had bit two people out of fear, I mean, crazy fear.” 

Bryant took Rover to her house for the night as he was visibly nervous and afraid and she wanted him to decompress before he returned to his elderly owners. The next day, Bryant said that Rover transformed into a different dog the moment she turned down Carrabassett Road in Anson.

“He knew straight away when I was driving down their road that he was going home because he started whining,” she said. “But as soon as I got into the house, I mean, the carrier started shaking because he was so excited and she [Gilbert] was so excited, David was excited too.”

Gilbert said that she cried tears of joy and was so thankful to all of the people who contributed to Rover’s homecoming, just in time for the holidays.

“I don’t know what he wants, he won’t tell me!” Gilbert said laughing and then asked Rover again what he wanted for Christmas. 

 

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