The Story Of How Oliver Was Found 2 Months Later

Two months after Oliver the dog went missing from his Northport family’s home, he was found weak, starving and on the verge of death only a few blocks away.

Oliver, an 11-year-old pit bull/lab mix, went missing on the Fourth of July after becoming frightened from fireworks.

The Cotela family did everything they could to locate Oliver. They put out flyers around the neighborhood, paid for the front page ad in the Hometown Shopper Magazine every week and even hired a professional dog tracker to do a scent trail.

“It was two long months of constantly looking in the woods and in golf courses,” Brittney Cotela told Patch. “We had a feeling he may be stuck somewhere. We thought for him not to be seen or spotted was very strange.”

The Cotela family— made up of Brittney, her husband Vito, and sons London, 5, and Bronson, 9— were contacted by members of the community who thought they spotted Oliver, but the tips were all false leads.

That is, until Saturday, Sept. 1 when a woman called saying she found Oliver, who looked like a “bag of bones,” in her yard. Oliver was stuck in a 2-foot hole where a removed tree stump was yet to be filled. He was extremely emaciated and on the verge of death. The woman rushed Oliver to Commack Animal Hospital, where he was given an IV and health check. He was dehydrated and malnourished from eating nothing but dirt, but he was cleared to return home to his family.

Oliver is now on the road to recovery and eating like a king. The Cotela family has been feeding him variations of London broil, turkey, rotisserie chicken, sausage, gouda and mozzarella cheeses, fish, bacon, and vanilla ice cream.

Oliver has been regaining his strength and has started walking again. Plus, he has a new playmate to keep him company.

“We found a litter of puppies rescued from Puerto Rico and ended up rescuing one last Wednesday,” Brittney says. Three days later, Oliver was found.

Having the puppy, Appollo, around “has almost had him get on his feet a little faster,” Brittney says.

The Cotela family wanted to thank all the people who have shown support during Oliver’s disappearance. “It’s such an amazing experience having such a loving community help with this.”

“A suggestion from one resident is to have Oliver on a float for the Cow Harbor Day parade b/c he became so locally famous," Brittney says.

Now that the entire Cotela family has been reunited, plus one additional member, maybe things will calm down for them.

“It was a crazy whirlwind of a summer,” Brittney says.

Images courtesy of Brittney Cotela