She fled on the Fourth of July because she was terrified. A dog on a freezing mountain trail.
Although the Fourth of July is more than a half-year away, it bears repeating that the holiday is extremely stressful for dogs, cats, and animals with hypersensitive hearing. According to Psychology Today, a dog’s hearing is four times that of a human. So what we can hear from 20 feet away, they can hear from 80 feet away.
Dogs can also hear much more than humans because their hearing is tuned to a higher frequency of sound. That’s why the 4th of July’s loud bangs, pops, and booms are so frightening to a dog. According to NPR, pet shelters see a large influx of dogs around the Fourth of July because many dogs become scared and flee their homes.
We’re sharing this story from WXYZ Detroit because it shows how sensitive dogs are to fireworks, but it also has a happy ending.
Andrea and Pablo Campos dropped their dog Tawny off at a daycare in Ingham County, Michigan, last summer on their way to a three-hour vacation in Traverse City. While they were away, they received word that Tawny had escaped the facility by climbing an 8-foot-high fence. The staff at the facility believe she was frightened by the fireworks.
The family cancelled their vacation and returned home to look for their missing dog. “We went door to door to people’s houses and just looking for weeks and weeks and weeks and she was nowhere to be found,” Pablo told WXYZ.
Tawny had travelled 60 miles away from their home and was living in the woods behind a post office in Livonia, unbeknownst to the Campos family. Tawny was fed on occasion by postal workers, but as the weather got colder, they decided she needed to be somewhere warm.
The dog was rescued by postal workers Steven Persyn, Dave Brisco, Adam Kaminski, and Jason Sobieski in collaboration with the South Lyon Murphy Lost Animal Recovery. “I can say there’s not a postal person I’ve met that doesn’t love animals,” a representative for the animal rescue wrote on Facebook. “Thank the lord for our post office!”
Tawny had a microchip, and the animal rescue was able to locate her family thanks to it. According to the animal shelter, Tawny was rescued six years after she was adopted by the Campos family.
Tawny’s safe return home was described as a “Christmas miracle” by the Campos family. “We considered her a princess that needed lots of pampering. And somehow she’s managed to live on her own and make it,” Pablo explained.
“I know there’s so many cliches talking about Christmas miracles, but we really, actually got one,” Andrea added.
Tawny’s story is both a heartwarming Christmas tale and a poignant reminder of the dangers of dogs and fireworks. However, the South Lyon Murphy Lost Animal Recovery would like everyone to remember another lesson. “THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE SHE WAS MICROCHIPPED!” they emphatically wrote on Facebook. “Get a microchip, and then follow through and register it!”