Jan 29, 2015 4 min read

Jaushlynn Anderson Engle and her 6-month old puppy, Zink, were reunited Thursday morning at the home of the woman who found the missing puppy cowering in some brush not far from the accident site Monday that sent the dog fleeing in the first place.

Engle said she received a call around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday from Sara Morgan of Mather, who after reading about the missing dog on the Finding Zink Facebook page created by Engle, went to look for the dog, not realizing how many other people were scouring the area for the mixed-breed pup.

“She was able to find him and it took her 30 minutes to get him to come out,” Engle said.

Engle, her 3-week-old son, Benson, and her mother-in-law were returning home to Corry after taking Engle’s husband, Tyler, to Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C., where he is stationed.

But the family’s vehicle skidded on some ice and flipped over on Interstate 79, about a mile north of the Ruff Creek Exit. No one was injured, but the accident frightened Zink, and he immediately bolted from the vehicle.

Engle said she wanted to go after Zink, who raced across the southbound lane and down a hill, but emergency personnel stopped her from going after the dog because of icy road conditions.

“I figured someone had picked him up or he was running because he was scared,” Engle said. “But I never gave up hope that he was alive, somewhere.”

Two other people who never gave up were Morgan and her husband, Kermit. If it were not for their persistence and love for dogs, Zink’s chance for survival would have been slim.

“Mather is not that far away from where the accident occurred, so on Wednesday afternoon, I tried to pinpoint where the dog might be,” Morgan said. “I checked along the interstate from Ruff Creek to Marianna looking for him,” she said. “But I really felt he would never be found.”

But Wednesday evening, she and her husband decided to give the search “one more shot. We decided to go hiking for him.”

The Morgans walked along I-79, passed Barnhart’s Honda toward Goodhill Road.

“We walked down a steep hill toward Goodhill from the interstate and as we were going down we saw a path of some kind, which turned out to be where the dog had been pacing back and forth,” she said.

“We got to the road and I began screaming his name,” she said. “It was just starting to get dark so we felt this might be our last chance. And within a few seconds, we heard barking.”

Zink was back in some brush huddled up in a ball against a fence. “We put a blanket out on the ground and started to come out and my husband reached in and picked him up, wrapped him in the blanket and carried him to our car,” she said.

“He was tired and cold but not harmed in any way,” Morgan said.

As soon as they got in their car, Zink went to sleep and Morgan called Engle and told her they found her dog. “At first, she didn’t believe us. I mean, here are some strangers calling her and telling her we had found her dog. Why should she believe us?” Morgan asked.

But when they got home, they took a picture of Zink and sent it to Engle. All doubts were erased.

“He was starving and I gave him some warm oatmeal. He perked up and spent the rest of the evening playing with our three dogs,” she said.

And at 11 a.m. Thursday, Engle arrived at Morgan’s house and the happy reunion took place.

“I could not have done it without my husband’s help. He was the one who carried the dog out of the woods.”

“Why did we do what we did?” Morgan asked. “‘Because if something like this happened to one of our dogs, I would hope people would do the same for us.”

Meanwhile, Engle is just thrilled. “It is hard to believe so many people cared.”