EAU CLAIRE COUNTY, Wis. (WEAU) – The story of Homeward Bound follows 3 family animals as they attempt to make their method home. One family in the Chippewa Valley had a comparable however frightening experience this month attempting to help their silver laboratory make it back home.
It began with a knock on the door.
“It was my neighbor saying that he was walking his dogs on their side of the tracks,” Burkhamer said. “He just saw that my dog tried to hop across the tracks. Unfortunately, the train kind of hit him.”
Burkhamer’s dog, Major, then ran from his home near Eau Claire, beginning a days-long look for him.
“That night we pretty much looked until about 11:00 p.m. or midnight, just looking all around the woods, calling for him, hoping he’d make his way back,” Burkhamer said. “It’s a lot of optimism as each hour kind of went by, you get the pang in your chest like this is not going as expected.”
Neighbors and good friends aided with the search and published on social networks getting the word out about Major. That’s where Stephanie Hite, an expert dog fitness instructor and dog tracker, saw his story.
“When I heard that the dog was hit by a train, I knew that it was something that needed to be addressed immediately,” Hite said.
So, Hite started her journey to the Burkhamer’s location with her dogs, hoping they might help discover Major.
“You offer a scent and you just kind of head out where the last known spot the dog was, which was where he was hit on the train, and that adrenaline, you know, seeps off of them. So, the dog can smell that through his nose,” Hite said. “I saw Major running through the field. I knew he was very, very scared, but he was wanting to go back home. So, the best thing you can do at that point is just back out and calm the whole surroundings and everything and just let him maybe choose to come home on his own.”
So they waited, and the next early morning.
“I went to the front door, no Major. I went to the back door where he usually goes outside, no Major,” Burkhamer said. “I opened that final door to go out to the garage and honestly, it was the coolest thing in the world.”
Now Major is back home with his family, after a frightening couple of days for everybody.
“He just jumped right back into our family, wants all the love that we can get, and we’re happy to give it to him,” Burkhamer said.
Now, Major did get some injuries from the train and the time after. Burnhamer said he lost the majority of his ideal ear, a couple of teeth and had some cuts however succeeded through surgical treatment and is imitating his regular self.
If you have an interest in Hite’s services for dog tracking or dog training, more information is here.
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