Missing Dog Found One Week Later

An Oak Ridge resident who lost her brown Pit bull dog last week found him on Sunday in the woods about a mile from her home after receiving a call from a nearby resident.

Catherine Lynch was reunited with her 1-year-old dog, Gunner, exactly one week after he ran away from her home on Dover Milton and School House roads. Lynch received a call on Saturday from a resident on School House Road who saw Gunner walking behind her house in the woods.

Lynch said she rushed over there, but Gunner took off when the resident approached him.

Lynch spent the whole day Saturday looking for Gunner but could not find him. She went back first thing Sunday morning, where she finally found her lost pup in a nearby yard on School House Road.

"It was like a miracle," Lynch said. "I couldn't believe it. He was just laying there. I was so sad; I went and picked him up and I walked as far as I could with him."

Lynch took Gunner to the Newton Animal Hospital immediately, and found out he lost eight pounds and was very weak and dehydrated.

The vets put a cast on Gunner's leg because he might have damaged a nerve, and gave him medication to build muscle mass again.

The vets won't know if Gunner can make a full recovery until he's done with his cast for five days.

Lynch said that if she didn't find Gunner that day, he probably wouldn't have been able to hold up much longer.

"He wouldn't have survived one more day in the woods," she said. "He wouldn't have been able to run away from anything and he would have been in trouble."