Focht Family Blog

This is a picture of Dory taken on her 2nd birthday in November…

Sunday we decided to drive to Amicolola Falls and have brunch with my brother’s family. Nathan and I had already left the RV and sent Samantha and Josh back in for warmer jackets. Whichever one was last out did not do a good job shutting the door. So while we were eating and hiking to the falls, Dory left the RV. Our only thought is that maybe she was going out to go potty. We now know that two people from the campground saw her walking around. I think that one of them may have yelled at her and scared her which started her running. As we were driving home we noticed cars slowing down for something and two people stopping and pulling over. Now we know that Dory was crossing the street as we drove by.

We got home and noticed that the door was ajar. Nathan and I thought Dory would still be inside. My first thought when we found her gone was that someone had stolen her because Dory doesn’t run off. We called the police and found out there had been two calls about a large dog roaming so we went searching where they had the last report. We found a gravel road that went all the way to a highway. I noticed a pawprint in the mud and we started following the pawprints. They led us in circles where she couldn’t figure out where she was going. This happened around 1:00 in the afternoon. At about 4:00 my brother and his wife spotted her coming out of the woods into a cow field at a neighboring farm. As soon as they called her she ran back into the woods diving under barbed wire to get away. I went back to where we originally were tracking her because it was in the direction she ran. I got to the end of the road and there she was. I called her name and she bolted. We tracked her for a bit in the direction she ran in but couldn’t find her.

Monday was spent with me taking the kids to a gold mine and Nathan working and looking for Dory. As soon as I got back we both went back to searching. We found pawprints but had no clue if they were from Sunday or Monday. We even called a lady who has a dog trained to track lost pets who is in Maryland. She told us to put food and toys out for her where we last saw her so we did. This morning we were back out by 8:00 to check her food dish and look for more prints.  We found prints a lot further away than where we were originally looking. We left the woods about 9:30 to start passing around flyers. At around 10:00 or so we were out by the road getting ready to search an abandoned house to see if we could find any sign of her.  As I was walking up to the house I received a call from the police saying they thought our dog had been spotted.

Two wonderful women, Leslie and Cheryl, noticed Dory on the side of the road. This was definitely God answering our prayers. They were meeting for coffee and went to a coffee place that they didn’t usually go to. They didn’t usually drive on the road that they saw Dory on. They stopped and found her so exhausted that she was laying down. Animal control was actually worried she had been hit because of how she was acting. As soon as we pulled up she got up and started coming towards Nathan. She was eager to get into the truck. We drove her to the vet’s office that handles mastiffs for rescue in the area. On the outside she is just scratched up and bruised but she flinched when her stomach was touched. Her blood shows that her liver levels are elevated and there was also some blood in her urine. They think she ate something she shouldn’t have. Hopefully it is just bad trash or a dead animal but it is acting like a poison to her. They are keeping her overnight on IV fluids and antibiotics to flush out the bad stuff. They will test her blood and urine again tomorrow afternoon and if her levels are improved she can come home….. after a BATH!! I created a map of Cumming, GA on Google maps that shows where Dory traveled. The middle point is the campground. The spot to the right and below is where we saw her on Sunday. The spot to the left and above is where she was found today!