After nearly a week-long search, Athena found her way to her Florida family home for Christmas Eve – and she even rang the doorbell.
4-year-old Athena, a German Shepherd and Husky mix, ran away from her home in Green Cove Springs, near Jacksonville, on Dec. 15, sparking a search for her in the community and nearby towns. Her owner, Brooke Comer, said her family was out for church that day and received a message from her neighbor with a photo of Athena outside the house.
Comer got nervous. Her family ran home to find her collar in the crate and no openings that Athena could get out of. How she escaped remains a mystery.
Brooke Comer via AP
The events of the following week remained an “incredible” story for Comer, where neighbors and community members from nearby towns would contact him. missing dog ads And send any footage or photos where they may have seen Athena. Based on all the alerts Comer received, it seemed that Athena had traveled about 20 miles round trip when she went missing.
At every alert, Comer and his family would rush to the scene within minutes and search for Athena – to no avail.
“She was the all-time grand champion of hide and seek,” Comer said. “My heart would jump with each scene, and it was honestly excitement and then your heart gets crushed because we were always one step behind.”
The entire discovery was a terrifying and scary experience for Comer, who she was worried about where his already irritable dog could go Or there could have been a confrontation. That was until 2:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve, when she got a Ring video notification from her doorbell and her other dog started barking.
“I was kind of stunned, and the dog was barking, and as soon as I heard that bell, I looked at my phone and you can see in the video it was Athena and she was jumping on the door, ringing the bell It was the doorbell,” Comer said.
As soon as Comer opened the door, Athena walked in and went to lick the face of her son, who was half asleep on the couch. After that, she immediately grabbed her ball to play and soon went back to her cage to sleep.
Comer said the experience gave her a lot of hope as neighbors and the larger community had been searching for Athena for the past week. The next plan was to get Athena a thorough checkup, flea and tick treatment, and a microchip.