Charles Reigies, the owner of the 8-year-old rescue dog with brown spots and floppy ears, remembers when his dog disappeared the day after Christmas. He was driving home to Grand Junction on Interstate 70 with his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente.
He hit a patch of black ice, they went off course, and their car crashed onto its side. It was dark, and they were miles from any town and about two hours from home.
“And the time I came to, she was hurt and the dog was gone,” he said. Poscente’s neck was broken and rushed by an ambulance to the hospital. While waiting for a tow truck, Reigies kept looking for Mia in the snow but saw no signs of her. Poscente was home the next day and reactivated her Facebook account to post about Mia for help.
She joined groups about lost and found pets across the region. The post had several likes and shares days after. Strangers from other towns helped search for Mia and posted daily updates online.
Janet Cross, a village mayor who lives near the crash site, heard that pets keep returning to where they’ve lost their people. She set up a trail camera in the area, ten days after the crash. Cross saw Mia coming back to that place twice a day. It was hopeful, Mia was alive.
“She’s looking at the spot. She is looking for her family. She’ looking skinny,” she said. “So yeah, it was pretty heartbreaking.”
For several weeks, people called and messaged with Mia’s sightings. Charles and Hanna checked the crash site as often as they could. One afternoon, they left at 5, while the camera recorded Mia at 7. “You could tell she was like, Wait, I smell them,” Poscente said, smiling. It was more difficult for them to live two hours away from their crash site. There were no Mia sightings for eight days.
Finally, Poscente received a call from a woman. “I’m looking at your dog,” she remembers her saying. Mia was about 10 miles from where the couple had crashed. A friend drove Poscente, still in a neck brace, to the area. Mia got scared that first night.
Poscente decided to try one more time the next morning. Her friend left to take a meeting by phone, and Poscente started walking down the train tracks as snow fell. She looked up, then to her left, there is Mia camouflaged in the snow. Mia starts to walk toward Poscente, who filmed the moment with her phone. “Hi, baby, hi!” Poscente uttered in the video with a cracked voice as Mia came closer. Then the video cuts off because Mia starts to jump over her.
Reigies said, knocked off his feet as they finally got home, “And as soon as I saw her in there, it was over. It was just tears galore. Mia’s ribs were showing, and her short white fur was dirty, but otherwise, she was the same: a little goofy and pretty quiet — unless she was eating. And she has done a lot of eating since she got back.
“She’s just a real sweet pup,” Reigies said, patting Mia on her stomach. After a month and one day, Mia made it home because of the help of many people.
