In Crawford County, Georgia, the family of a Labrador retriever/German shepherd blend, named Kota had disappeared more than a year ago when the family’s electric fence stopped working.

July 2022, Kota and Ranger went missing from our backyard after a storm the night before blew the electric fence. I had no idea until hours later that they were gone.

Kota has always been an escape artist. One time when we were out of town at a fishing tournament, Kota managed to not only break out of her kennel with a muzzle on, but she also escaped out of the hotel room where she sat in the parking lot until we returned. We have been through countless crates, kennels, cages, and all sorts of ways to contain her during the very few hours we needed her contained. We had finally found an answer with the electric fence.

The family searched for their dog everywhere, placing signs for the missing pooch, but no one reported having found her. She had been adopted as a puppy and had been a special canine family member; after all she was there to welcome the family’s first child born.

Kellie Tuten, Kota’s owner, said her dog had been missing more than a year, when in September, a Facebook post led the Kellie to her. The post on Facebook described a family from Macon who had been feeding a stray dog they had nicknamed ‘momma dog.’ And yes, it was Kota. She had been living in the woods. And there was more; Kota had given birth in a nearby storm drain to four puppies, and this had not been her first litter. The amazing woman who had been feeding Kota had been the dog’s angel for sure:

If you didn’t believe in angels before.. you would now after meeting Lisa Wood who not only had been feeding my dog twice a day, took in her (not 1 but 2 litters of) puppies and found them all loving homes, as well as bent over backwards to help us find Kota’s 3rd (and final I will add) litter, rescue them, and coax a very scared and traumatized mama dog to come home.

Facebook

According to Kellie, Kota has changed. When Kellie thought Kota would run to her and jump all over because she would be so glad to see her family, the dog is much more reserved and much more independent since she had been fending for herself for nearly a year. The family is slowly working on making Kota feel more secure and at last – home.

And here’s Kota’s family; they are named

Finn (red collar)

Creek (tan collar)

Bear (white collar)

Huck (black collar)

Check out the video: