CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A Green Cove Springs family was reunited with their lost dog “Athena” early Christmas Eve when she miraculously found her way home after going missing nine days prior.
The German Shepherd and Husky mix went missing from her family’s home on Sunday, Dec. 15, prompting a community-wide search to find her.
Athena’s owner, Brooke Comer, said she believes Athena escaped from her crate and somehow got outside the house without her collar.
With the help of social media, people around the community and a little holiday kindness, Athena made it back home safely early Tuesday morning.
The family called Athena’s return home a “Christmas miracle.”
For days, Comer said people across the area were looking for her and sending her support online. One of her neighbors came up with the idea to form a search party for Athena. Another neighbor used his drone to search for her by air.
“It restores your faith in humanity, because it’s like, these are people who were complete strangers who didn’t know us, never heard of us,” she said. “They literally rallied around the second or third night she went missing.”
Comer handed out flyers and posted on Facebook all in search of Athena, and she got a massive response.
“I had numerous people telling me they messaged me and inboxed me, ‘I took the long way home or I took a different route home just to look for her,'” Comer said. “She’s definitely a famous dog I think around Green Cove, I feel like everybody knows Athena’s name”
She even had people in Jacksonville reaching out online if they saw a dog that looked like Athena.
Comer said Athena was captured on home security cameras wondering as far as downtown Green Cove Springs, miles away from her home. Residents reported the sightings online.
“We had numerous spottings about every two days, we followed up on them day and night,” she said. “But we were always one step behind her.”
Comer and others throughout her neighborhood looked for Athena for hours Monday night.
“We spent about two to three hours searching with the rest of our wonderful community,” Comer said.
“It was so awesome,” Rachel Stencil, Comer’s friend, chimed in. “There were so many people out driving around, every car that drove by had flashlights. Everybody was trying to find her.”
Comer said the group called it a night around midnight, but someone had an interesting idea to help lure Athena home.
“We kinda left a trail of roller hot dogs down the side of our main road into the neighborhood,” Comer said.
When 2:30 a.m. rolled around, Athena came scratching at the front door.
“I got Ring notifications and she was jumping at the front door and my Ring alarm was going off and I opened the door and she came in,” Comer said. “She found her own way home.”
Watch the Ring camera video below:
The reunion woke the rest of the family; they were so happy their fur baby was back home.
“She came in crying and whining, I was crying and whining, the kids were woken up. They were jumping and it was awesome,” Comer said. “She was happy to be home.”
“It’s just really exciting to know that she knows how to find her way home and that she’s safe,” Comer’s son said.
“It was a good Christmas present that she came home,” Comer’s daughter added.
Comer said the help from people around the community made a difference in keeping track of where she had been.
“I can never thank them enough because without those sightings we wouldn’t have known where she [Athena] was,” Comer said.
Comer said she learned a tough lesson: “I knew she was smart. But, she’s a lot smarter than I thought.”
She joked she needed to get Athena a tighter collar, adding she planned to get a GPS tracker for Athena so she never gets lost again.
Comer said Athena will get checked in with a vet after the holidays to ensure she is healthy.
She had one more message for anyone who ever finds themselves in her situation: “Don’t lose hope if your dog’s lost, she’ll make her way home.”