Alger County community unites to rescue missing dog

AU TRAIN, Mich. (WLUC) - What started as a rescue mission in Alger County has turned into an amazing recovery story, bringing a missing dog home months later.

Six-year-old German Shepherd Georgi e is now back in Madison, Wisconsin doing one of her favorite things, sleeping. Georgie ran away from her Grandpa's home in Au Train on July 4.

Paul Meese says Georgie was gone for 112 days. Meese says this nightmare began after he and his daughter, Georgie's owner, left for a parade and left a screen window open.

"Something happened that panicked Georgie, and then my cousin called me and said I think your dog is out, and we came back without seeing the parade and looked for the dog, and we couldn't find her," Meese said.

Jeff Olson is the hunter who found Georgie, and he says one day he was just hunting bear out in the woods with a small camera. However, he says after checking the footage, he noticed something strange.

"We thought it was a wolf because the picture wasn't very clear at the time," Olson said. "The next evening a much clearer picture came in and you could really tell that it was a German Shepard."

Olson says after he saw the pictures of a dog on his camera, he called his cousin to ask if anyone was missing a dog. He says his cousin immediately connected him to Meese.

Olson says after speaking with Meese, he got a live trap from an animal rescue service called Bring Them Home in Marquette.

Then, 'Operation Catch Georgie' began.

"When I got the trap from Paul Meese, I took it out of the woods where I bear hunt because she was living off my bear feed," Olson said. "I put some dog food in there and some tuna fish until I went out to the trap the next day, and Georgie was in the trap, so we loaded her up on a four-wheeler, and brought her out of the woods, and got her back to her family."

Olson says Georgie was found 11 miles away from the Meese home.

Meese also says a Facebook post about Georgie being missing had over 600 hits and comments.

"Thank you again for everybody helping. We appreciate the help and appreciate what the community has done to help support us," Meese said.

Meese says Georgie lost 20 pounds since being found on Oct. 18. He also says she developed Lyme disease, but she's now recovering well with treatment.