Lost For More than 2 Years, West Virginia Dog Found in Central New York

Lost for more than 2 years, a West Virginia dog found in Upstate New York. Sadie, an American foxhound spent two-and-a-half years on the road covering nearly 400 miles. Along the way she had a litter of pups, survived getting caught in a coyote trap and endured a life-threatening infection.

Sadie's tale begins at a hunting club near the West Virginia border where she went missing in 2014. On January 10, of 2017 the Chenango dog control officer, Linda Hamilton received a call concerning a stray dog that was dragging a coyote trap on one of its back legs. It was Hamilton's tireless efforts that would eventually lead to Sadie's rescue and a happy ending to her long journey.

From January to June of 2017 Hamilton posted flyers all over Broome County and took calls about sightings of the dog. Over the course of time, trail cams caught Sadie with the trap on her leg as early as December of 2016 and in February a person in Maine, NY reported finding the trap with Sadies' foot still in it.

As the story grew, more and more people were involved in the efforts to capture the dog, but Sadie dodged them all and kept moving.

She was traveling about nine miles a day. Everybody wanted to help her, but people have a hard time understanding that a dog is in survival mode at that point.

In June, Nicole Asher, owner of Buddha Dog Rescue & Recovery got involved. Her company specializes in capturing trap-savvy dogs. She made the trek from Tuxedo Park to the Endicott area and assisted in rescuing Sadie using an enclosure trap. The video shows how wary the dog was of the trap, but the temptation of food overcame her.

In addition to losing a foot, a medical exam showed Sadie lost a tooth, had a tear in her tongue and was experiencing a severe infection that would have spelled her demise without capture. She was also wearing a collar that id'ed her as belonging to a hunting club near the West Virginia border. Once the club declined to take her back, Hamilton adopted her and began the long road to Sadie's recovery.

Fast forward one year, and we find Sadie healthy, happy and sporting a prosthetic leg thanks to Cornell University's Hospital for Animals. Hamilton reports after a few months of therapy, Sadie can walk and swim with the prosthetic and romps around her backyard with three other dogs.