As someone who doesn't have any kids but does have one very special doggo who owns my heart and all the love I have to give in this world, I can't imagine anything worse than discovering that he's gone missing.
But that's exactly the nightmare that Washington couple Verne and Carole King found themselves living when their sweet pup, Katie, went missing during a trip to Montana.
According to People, all was fine until one evening during the getaway when Carole and Verne decided to go for dinner together and left Katie in the hotel room alone. When they came back, the pair discovered their dog had somehow managed to escape.
"It was devastating," Carole told Daily Inter Lake. "I got sick to my stomach."
“I said to the clerk, ‘please tell me you have my dog.’ The clerk says ‘no, she left about four, four and a half hours ago,'” Carole said.
That night, she and her husband spent hours searching for Katie but were forced to stop due to a storm that was raging through the region, the same one they suspect caused Katie to panic and flee the room in the first place.
Carole said she also posted to multiple Facebook groups for missing pets, and even set up cameras in areas where people had reportedly spotted Katie.
As the days turned into weeks and the Kings still hadn't found their beloved dog, Carole decided she needed to devote all her time and energy towards bringing Katie home. So, she quit her job as a postal worker and continued the search.
“You know, you love your dog so much and you just have hope, and you know she’s out there searching for you,” she said. “You just can’t give up.”
After 57 days spent searching tirelessly for Katie, Carole's hard work finally paid off on September 15 with one fateful phone call.
Although she had run off by the time Carole arrived, some supremely helpful neighbors helped this dog momma locate Katie once and for all, and the pair were finally reunited.
“She was right there in the bushes, she ran out, I yelled her name and she came right out to me,” Carole recalled.
Now, the three are together again at last. Katie lost about 12 pounds during the nearly two-month long ordeal, but is otherwise perfectly healthy.
Carole said she's grateful for everyone's help during their frantic search, and especially those who helped her finally track Katie down.
“It was just—I should use another word—but amazing,” she said. “I just don’t know how to describe it.”
h/t: People, The Columbian, Daily Inter Lake
