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Family’s dog found five days later, stuck in neighbor’s barn

Posted at 6:24 PM, Jun 01, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-01 20:49:55-04

LOWELL, Mich. – A family’s English Shepherd wandered out of their yard last week and went missing five days, but the real story is how he was found, by chance, across the street.

One-year-old Auburn Ford squealed in joy playing with his dog Wyatt on Wednesday, after they were reunited earlier this week.

It was all after the neighbor, Jake Hessler, 13, found him in his family’s barn.

Hessler walked up the Ford’s driveway Wednesday, and as soon as his school bus was leaving Wyatt was running to greet him.

Auburn’s mother, Wyatt’s owner, Morgan Ford said last week she knew something was wrong when Wyatt wasn’t there to greet the family on their porch.

“Waking up and not having him around was just so different,” said Ford. “I just knew something was wrong.”

Ford called family, friends, and posted on social media looking for Wyatt. Despite many strangers and even local police departments sharing her posts five days went by and no word on Wyatt.

Little did everyone know, Wyatt sat quietly stuck inside a five-foot-deep pit used to work on cars in the Hessler’s barn across the street.

Hessler said he and his family were calling for Wyatt, even went into the barn and heard nothing, until he went back again to get some hunting gear and heard a whimper.

“It was almost like a whimper, and we had been in there before but it didn’t make any noise,” said Hessler.

And then, the rescue: Hessler held Wyatt up as the shepherd pawed his way out.

“There’s a ladder and I don’t think he could get back up so I put his two front legs up on it, and then lifted up his back half, and then he kind of just walked back up,” said Hessler.

With Wyatt home uninjured and just a bit dirty, it’s a reunion that could not be sweeter.

“When the boy brought him over that day Auburn ran right up to him, he lays his head on him, he kept yelling ‘Wit’ and squealing and smiling,” said Ford.

Hessler said “I was really happy that we found him,” and declined the reward the Fords offered him when he originally brought Wyatt back home. He was taken by surprise Wednesday when FOX 17 caught a special moment on camera: Ford gave him a gift card to say thank you.