Dog reunited with owner after running away for a month in Rocky Mountains

A dog has been reunited with his owner after spending 43 days lost in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, after he bolted off during a pit stop on their travels. 

If a pet goes missing near your home, it might take a few days before you’re able to find it again. You might have to print out fliers, make posts on local social media groups, and knock on neighbors’ doors for any sort of help. Yet, if it runs off into the wild, you might have less chance of bringing it home. 

In the case of Steven Maa, his 10-year-old dog, Rocky, bolted while they were traveling to California from New Jersey. 

The 10-year-old was spending some time with a dog sitter when it got spooked and shot off into the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. That prompted a long search for Rocky by Maa and his partner, where they battled a snowstorm to try and track him down.

Dog reunited with owner after running off in Rocky Mountains

In the end, Maa had to enlist the help of Summit Lost Pet Rescue, a nonprofit who search for lost pets in the area. After setting up cameras and sending emails alerting locals to Rocky’s disappearance, they managed a sighting of the dog within three days.

However, it took a further 40 days before they were able to actually track him down, thanks to an appearance on a Ring doorbell camera.

“I apologized to the owner and said, ‘I need to respond to Montezuma. This dog has been missing for 43 days, and I’m sure it is extremely starving and very, very close to dying.’ So, we drove up there,” Brandon Ciullo, founder of Summit Lost Pet Rescue, told NJ News.

Even though he managed to come face-to-face with Rocky, Ciullo noted that the dog ran away for a few more hours before lured back with peanut butter. 

“Getting to see Rocky and seeing how happy he was to see me was definitely very emotional,” Maa said after being reunited with his dog on February 13.

“It didn’t seem like his personality or his emotions had changed at all, so that was super comforting to see and surprising.”