Eight months later, missing Massachusetts dog found in Maine

ASHBY, Mass. — An Ashby family thought they had lost their beloved dog, Kaiser, when he disappeared last summer.

But last week, a miracle happened, when they found the German Shepherd in Maine.

The whole ordeal started during what was supposed to be a happy occasion.

During a backyard family wedding last June with about 200 people, Kaiser got out of his kennel and took off running. He didn't stop.

Every day after work, Kaiser's owner, Tom Woollacott, would search for him.

“I put fifteen hundred miles on my car just driving around doing loops," said Woollacott.

There were frequent sightings of Kaiser for a month. Then suddenly, the calls stopped.

"After that, there would be people calling about a German Shepherd but nothing that sounded like him," Woollacott said.

But just last week, he was sent a posting from an animal shelter in Maine, about a dog found near Sunday River.

It was a long shot, but he made the call.

“I said his teeth are a little funny and he’s got a nick here and we were able to figure out it was him and the second they said,'Hey Kaiser' and his ears perked up, they knew what was going on," Woollacott said.

After work on Friday, Woollacott made the more than 3-hour-long drive to Maine to pick him up.

And just like that, after 8 months, these best friends were reunited.

And just in time, too.

Kaiser had been at the shelter for 5 days. On the sixth day, he would have been up for adoption.

"They were already fighting over who got to take him home. It sounded like if I hadn’t made it up on time so it’s a good thing I got there when I did," Woollacott said.

Kaiser had somehow gone from Ashby all the way to South Paris, Maine – about 175 miles away.

"I guess there’s a woman who unfortunately had her freezer die, and she had a bunch of meat out and he ate half of it in one night," Woollacott said.

The full story of how he got to Maine, only Kaiser knows.

"He could have ended up in Canada if he stayed out long enough, who knows what he was doing," said Woollacott.

Overall, Kaiser looks like he is in good shape. They're taking him to the vet in the next few days, just to make sure.

It's easy to tell that Kaiser is happy to be home.

It's a place his family never thought they'd see him again.

"I wasn’t expecting to get him back," said Woollacott.

Cox Media Group