Nora, lost on vacation

Albany family reunited with dog lost on trip
By January Keato
Posted: Feb 20, 2014

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A dog that went missing during an Albany family's vacation in Florida has been found.

The family says they've taken the dog to the veterinarian to check her out and that she's going to be okay.

The response to the family's plight was tremendous and helped by social media. A Facebook page, "Finding Nora," was created and soon had over 2,000 likes. Images of Nora the missing dog were shared by hundreds of people.

From the Finding Nora Facebook page:

Let's see if I can put all the pieces together:

Ralph left the house early this morning to walk over to the Clubhouse to hit a bucket of golf balls. With everything going on, he needed a distraction to help relieve some stress. He wasn't gone maybe 5 minutes when he's back home. I think he's probably forgotten something and asked him what he forgot. He's crying and he says, "We're going to pick up Nora!" I screamed and asked how that was possible! He said he just a got a call on his cell phone from a man saying he had our dog. The man on the phone began to describe the dog, her collar, her pink harness, her ID tags. Now Ralph begins to believe this is for real! So they talk for a while and arrange to meet at a location in Celebration because his wife had an early appointment there. 

It seemed like it took an eternity to get to Celebration but we finally made it. No matter where you go around here, there's always tons of traffic and its usually backed up!!! We located the couple sitting on a park bench across from Starbucks...and there was Nora!!! I fell to my knees and wrapped myself around her! She was wet, smelly, full of burs, fleas, looking very tired and skinny. When I was able to compose myself, I hugged and hugged Marlene and Phil. Saying THANK YOU over and over again just didn't seem like enough. We offered them a reward but they refused to take it.

We learned that Nora had been wandering around their house for the past few days. They live in the neighborhood off Darlene Drive on the other side of Apopka-Vineland Road. This means that Nora had to cross that busy highway at some point, and the thought of that just scares me to pieces. Marlene said she heard snoring outside her bedroom window one night and when she went to investigate, found Nora sleeping under it. They started to leave food out for her and eventually Nora made her way into the backyard. Once she got in the backyard, they closed the gate so she couldn't escape. 

This morning, Phil tried to catch her but as she tried to run away, she fell in their pool! He was then able to grab her to pull her out of the pool and could read her ID tags. I had just had a new ID tag engraved with our name, home address, home phone number and Ralph's cell phone number on it. Phil called Ralph's cell phone number and the rest is history. The amazing part in all of this is that Marlene and Phil were not aware of Nora's FB page or any other news and info we had out there about Nora!!! 

We immediately took Nora to the Polo Park Animal Hospital to get checked out. They were able to take her right away and Dr. Jones was fabulous!!! He gave her a thorough examination, had some blood work done, gave her subcutaneous fluids, gave her some antibiotics and flea killer. Dr. Jones said that Nora was in remarkably good shape considering her ordeal! She was dehydrated and had lost 5 lbs. She was full of burs and fleas and was favoring one of her hind legs. We will be taking her back to Dr. Jones tomorrow for follow up blood work because one of her kidney levels was abnormal but he thinks it's just because she's so dehydrated. Her blood work tomorrow should be closer to normal levels. Her hind leg just seems to be sore and we'll keep a close eye on it. 

Nora is sleeping right now, curled up on her bed! She is obviously exhausted. It will take time but we're confident she'll be back to normal in no time. She is a fighter and a survivor!

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Source: http://www.news10.com/story/24776536/albany-family-reunited-with-dog