By Jennifer Shrader Staff writer La Grange News
October 9, 2010
Nearly two weeks after they lost their terrier-mix dog in a crash in Troup County, a Villa Rica couple has their baby back.
Paige and Blakeley Johnson say they won’t ever be able to sufficiently thank people in LaGrange and Troup County enough, particularly in the Mountville-Louise community where Leila was found Thursday night.
“For being out in the woods for more than a week, she looks really good,” Paige Johnson said Friday morning.
Leila and Blakely Johnson were at the veterinarian’s office Friday morning. The 4-year-old dog checked out fine, except for a few scratches on her belly.
The dog went missing Sept. 26 when the couple, headed home from an anniversary trip to the beach, hydroplaned at the intersection of Interstates 85 and 185. Leila broke free from the car and went into the woods.
Though injured, the Johnsons never stopped looking for her, plastering the LaGrange area with flyers. They have no children.
One of the flyers was placed at Miss Linda’s Grocery and Cafe on Willowood Road, where Blakely Johnson frequently stopped during his searches. As the crow flies, or in this case, the dog trots, it’s not far from the scene of the Johnson’s crash.
Owner Linda Shaw said a woman came in the store Thursday and stopped when she saw the flyer.
“She said, ‘I think my sister’s been feeding that dog,’ ” Shaw said. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ “
Shaw and others in the community had been out looking for the dog. It’s a close group that looks out for each other, the same area hit by a tornado 2 1/2 years ago.
Shaw in particular was empathetic to the Johnsons’ plight, because she lost her own dog two years ago.
Blakely Johnson and a family friend arrived in LaGrange to help with the search. They parked Thursday near the home of the woman who said she’d been feeding the dog and waited for the sun to go down. The woman had said the dog would come out of the woods every night, eat, then go back to the woods. The house is about 100 yards from Shaw’s store.
Sure enough, as the sun set, Leila appeared.
“It was like a movie,” Blakely Johnson said. “The sun was setting behind her and she was shaking and wagging her tail.”
Though timid at first, Leila eventually did come when “daddy” called her. A photo of the reunion shows Blakely Johnson with a death grip on the dog - and the biggest smile.
“The good Lord brought her back to us,” Blakely Johnson said.
LaGrange Daily News carrier Robert Longshore had been in the area looking for the dog, too, and snapped the photo.
“It was really a moment,” Longshore said. “He was hugging that dog and crying and saying, ‘My baby, my baby.’ “
Shaw said Blakely Johnson returned to the store to tell her the good news, still crying. She’s just happy to have a part in the reunion.
“I’ve been everywhere looking for that dog,” she said. “She was 100 yards from me the whole time.”
Source: http://www.lagrangenews.com/view/full_story/9849018/article-Couple-reunited-with-dog-lost-after-crash?instance=secondary_news_left_column&sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4cb070bd5b357d08,0
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