'Relieved And Elated': Lost Livestock Farm Dog Found Safe On LI

RIVEHEAD, NY —It was the happiest of endings as Halo, a livestock guardian farm dog missing since Thanksgiving in Riverhead, was found safe Monday.

Diana DiMenna said Halo, who'd gone missing from her farm on Sound Avenue, was home.

She'd been working with Teddy Henn of Long Island Lost Dog Search & Rescue. In a video, Henn said Halo had traveled "some ground," about four miles, before Monday's sighting. With the help of one of Halo's siblings, Halo emerged from a field and then ran across Sound Avenue in front of a body shop. Next, the sibling was downwind of Halo and Halo caught the dog's scent and did a "belly crawl" to him, Henn said.

DiMenna, Halo's jubilant owner, said a Patch story about Halo helped to bring her dog home after a sighting by one of the many in the community who were so eager to lend a hand.

"It was actually the Patch article that helped someone identify her when he saw her running across a field," she said. "He called us, and we were able to get over there with one of our other farm dogs and get Halo safely on a lead and back home."

DiMenna also said she and her family were incredibly thankful to Henn.

"We are so relieved and elated to have Halo home, and immensely grateful to the entire North Fork community for helping us search for her. My family and I have the highest praise for and gratitude to Teddy Henn, who helped us follow a tip sighting from a kind and sharp-eyed neighbor, Steve Scarfo. Tracy McLaren spent several days and nights searching hundreds of acres with us, and Stephanie Hunter and Debi Stokes put up fliers along miles and miles of ourRiverhead roads. What a joy they said it was to start taking them down today!"

She added: "Halo’s dog siblings and all of the animals she helps care for at our farm are overjoyed at her return, perhaps no one more than her favorite farm caretaker Luis Maldonado."

The experience was a testament to the open-hearted community DiMenna now calls home.

"The outpouring of care and support from the Riverhead community has been overwhelming. We only moved here in June and don’t know a lot of people yet, but everyone was willing to help — reached out, kept their eyes open, and spread the word. We are blown away by the kindness of our new neighbors."

Halo, a livestock guardian dog and a Great Pyrenees, had gone missing from the Sound Avenue farm and had been seen moving east over the past few days, DiMenna said.

"She is beloved by her family and her two other dog siblings," DiMenna said. When she was found, DiMenna said, the quality of the photos taken wasn't the best, "because everybody was trembling and crying."