Tearful Reunion Between Dog Missing for 77 Days and Owner Who Never Gave Up

A dog has been reunited with her owner after being missing for 77 days and prompting a huge social media search campaign from her owner.

Cali is a 5-year-old border collie who lives in Amarillo, Texas, with owner Jerry Lockhart and canine friends Panda, Vic and Pretty Girl.

On June 1, 2023, Cali got into the neighbor's backyard with Vic after they made a hole in the fence, and somehow managed to escape the neighbor's yard.

Vic was caught and taken into the house, but Cali ran.

"There was no choice but to find her," Lockhart told Newsweek. "A young girl that night saw Cali trying to cross a busy street from the house, got out and stopped traffic for Cali. She saw Cali checking out the pickups at a convenient store. Cali was looking for my truck."

Unable to catch her, the young woman took a picture of Cali which would become one of just five pictures in 77 days.

While Lockhart and his family continued looking for their beloved pet, he started sharing appeals on Facebook, asking locals to keep an eye out for Cali.

"I put it on Facebook. It had over 47,000 shares. Someone on TikTok got it off Facebook and posted and that went big," he said.

Among the people who saw the posts about Cali, Julie Hopkins' daughter saw the story on TikTok and was quick to tell her mom, who is part of Traprs in Austin, an organization that specializes in trapping, rescue and pet recovery.

"Julie called offered to help, got involved, gave us advice, direction, resources," said Lockhart.

Despite multiple calls and sightings, it wasn't until August 17 that the family were reunited with their beloved dog.

Keeping everyone up to date throughout, Lockhart continued to share any sightings—even when they were similar looking dogs that didn't turn out to be Cali. When the weather was bad, he shared his concern for the border collie being out and alone.

But on August 17, over two months after she went missing, the family received a call about a sighting. The rescue team mobilized to the area and hours later they managed to get hold of the dog—it was Cali.

Through her time missing, Cali endured flooding, soaring temperatures and severe weather. Lockhart explained that he never lost hope that he would find his pup: "We all thought if she stayed alive we would find her. But there were lots of variables. Traffic, food, conflicts, storms, heat, excessive rain, no rain."

When they were reunited, Cali was in a sorry state and needed lots of attention and care.

"She wasn't far from death. Dehydrated, starving, foot injury ticks and fleas," said Lockhart. "That helped to catch her. She lost 21 pounds from 50 to 29."

Now back home, Cali is recovering from her long ordeal and Lockhart is busy happily taking down the missing dog signs scattered through the community.

"She is tough," her owner said. "What a girl."

Update 08/25/23, 10:05 a.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect the fact that the dog lives in Amarillo, Texas, not Conroe.