After three long weeks of searching for their missing blind and senior dog, an Alaskan family had given up hope. But their prayers were answered after a construction crew found Lulu in salmonberry bushes in the woods.
The elderly Golden Retriever had wandered away from the Kubacki family’s home on June 18 and disappeared. They immediately began searching for her, worried about her safety.
“She’s just so helpless, and you kind of imagined that she can’t get real far because she can’t see,” Ted Kubacki told the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
As the weeks went on, the family’s worry turned to despair. They were also subjected to a cruel joke by a prankster who claimed they had found Lulu only for the person to text them ‘just kidding’ later.
But then a construction crew spotted an animal down an embankment by the side of a road not too far from the Kubacki’s home. At first the crew thought it was a bear, but soon realized it was a dog.
Ted was ecstatic when he received the call that Lulu had been found. “I called my wife from work and it was just screaming… She just starts yelling, then she yells to the kids. And I just hear them screaming like crazy,” Kubacki said.
Although Kubacki said he was hoping for a happy, tail wagging dog, Lulu had “been through the wringer” and didn’t even have the energy to lift her head. The elderly Golden Retriever was in poor shape having lost 23 pounds (10.43 kilograms) and suffering from dehydration.
But thankfully, Lulu is on the mend and her family is nursing her back to health. The Sitka community also pitched in to help the family of seven helping raise funds to cover Lulu’s veterinarian bill, the Associated Press reported.
“Slowly but surely she started eating and she was kind of able to pick her head up,” Kubacki told the newspaper of Lulu’s recovery. “But then yesterday, she propped herself up on her front paws by herself, like nestled into me and gave me a kiss and wagged her tail and it was just so great.”
He added, “She means everything. I have five daughters and they’re 4 to 13 years old, so they’ve spent every day of their life with that dog.”
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