Community Helps Reunite Lost Dog With Grieving Family After Deadly Crash

An officer from Alabama helped reunite a dog with her grieving family in Arkansas after a deadly car crash claimed the life of her 19-year-old owner. McKenzie Catron died in a car crash last weekend in Dothan, Alabama while on spring break.

Her vehicle ran off the road and struck a utility pole, critically injuring the passenger and killing her. Her beloved rescue dog Kai was also in the car and ran away from the wreck. Jonathon Whaley was the first on the scene and when he learned about Kai he knew he had to do something for the family.

“We felt we needed to find the dog,” Sgt. Whaley told Fox 5 Atlanta. “We were going to do whatever we needed to do to reunite this dog with this family.”

Soon police were joined by hundreds of volunteers from the community. Firefighters, police and volunteers all joined in on the search to track down Kai and reunite her with her family.

Benjamin Irwin, of Cherry & Irwin Trial Lawyers, even offered a $1,000 reward. It ended up being Irwin and another volunteer that eventually tracked Kai down a few days later. But Kai was spooked and did not make their rescue efforts easy.

Irwin explained the “chase” in his Facebook post shared by the “Help Find Kai” Facebook page:

“My wife and I, with this wonderful couple Allen and Brittany pursued Kai for over a mile and up and down too many city streets and made multiple attempts to catch Kai, until we finally created a loving wall when she went inside a person’s shelter in their back yard.”

“It was amazing as it started out with just me and the other gentleman Allen in the picture. Then my wife just happened to be in the area searching as well and she joined in. We apologize to all the cars and other people we cut off or just plain ignored while we focused solely on recovering Kai.

“Over the city blocks and miles of both running and driving we found mutual friends who eventually jumped in and helped as well. Once our number was up to 8 people we were able to get Kai to relax enough for Brittany to be able to grab her collar. We gave Kai water and food at the spot but obviously she was too tired and anxious for either.”

Kai was taken to the vet and, other than being exhausted and dehydrated, Kai was in good physical health.

They gave her a shirt of Catron’s so she could rest more easily. “She knows her mommy’s scent and it put her right at ease,” wrote “We Found Kai”.

In a later post, Irwin said he planned to donate the money he put up for the reward to the animal shelter from which Kai was adopted.

Of the community’s joint efforts, Sgt. Whaley said, “If everybody would react this way our world would be such a better place.”

Sgt. Whaley and his wife volunteered to drive the 770 miles to bring Kai home to her family. They made one pit stop overnight so as to not tire out Kai and shortly after she was reunited with her family.

Catron’s family was extremely touched by the community’s efforts and act of kindness. “For us, it was just a part of her. And we found it,” Catron’s mother Kendra Mulherin told KHBS. “And now we can kind of start healing.”

The “We Found Kai” Facebook page relayed the following message from Catron’s family:

“To the town of Dothan, the Fire department, and the Police department,

The parents, sisters, and family of Mckenzie Catron want to express how thankful we are for everything you have done and all of your support during this tragic time. Kenzie was loved by many and she will be missed very much. We can’t express in words how much you have helped the healing process. It’s nice to know there are such good people in this world.

Although we haven’t been able to reply to each individual we are still thankful for your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you”

What a moving story. Please share it if you were as touched by what the town did to help Catron’s family as I was.

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