Community Corner

Beloved Pup On the Run for Three Weeks is Back Safe in Her Foster Home

It took a village to rescue Joanie. A meet and greet reception will be held for Joanie at Elmhurst Animal Care Center next week.

It reads like a Christmas fable: Shelter dog missing for three weeks in frigid cold and snow is reunited with her foster family just in time for Christmas. 

But it's not a heart-warming piece of fiction, it's actually true. Every word.

Joanie is a shelter dog who was lost in Wheaton on Dec. 7. She trekked all over Wheaton and Glen Ellyn, and we know this because she was spotted—dozens of times. On Saturday, Dec. 21, she was finally coaxed into a home in Wheaton.

The 3-year-old golden retriever mix came to Illinois all the way from Beirut, Lebanon. She escaped while she was being transferred to her new foster home. 

She was spotted nearly every day by someone in the Wheaton and Glen Ellyn area, but she is so shy no one could approach her without her running off. She was spotted in the Scottdale subdivision, Glen Ellyn woods and near College of DuPage, to name a few areas, all the while residents were being warned of coyotes, wind chills plunged below zero and snow piled up. 

Find out what's happening in Glen Ellynwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Countless volunteers went door to door, put out food to try to lure her, distributed flyers, manned a hotline, searched for miles on foot, posted continuous updates online, plotted on maps and prayed for Joanie's safe return. They never gave up; the many sightings helped everyone stay positive. There were even sightings reported in the middle of the night. 

A Facebook page, "Help Find Joanie," offered some amazing real-time tracking of this slippery pup. Here are just a few of the many posts on "Help Find Joanie":

Find out what's happening in Glen Ellynwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

  • Dec. 12: "Joan's search will be featured on Fox News tonight at 9pm. Please tune in!"
  • Dec. 15: "Lots of up to the minute sightings in Glen Ellyn woods … She is running fast and still has the leash on."
  • Dec. 15: From Karen Clarke: "My husband and I have called our search for the day and heading home to elmhurst. We left a lot of hot dogs spiked to low tree branches around the trap, in hopes that the odor will draw her to the area. Coyotes might have been scoping out the trap, but I think so far they are leery of the trap and the hot dogs."
  • Dec. 17: "Fresh tracks believed to be hers (with the dragging leash)" were found around Buena Vista and Kensington in Glen Ellyn. "Glen Ellyn police are aware and have notified the night shift."

Then, finally, she wandered into a Wheaton yard Saturday morning and was coaxed into the home. George Jasper posted at 8:42 a.m. Saturday:

"She is filthy and has a lot of burrs and things, but seems in remarkably good shape. She will be going to the vet this morning to be checked out and cleaned up, and then back into foster care with DOUBLE leashes and never a door opening without her firmly in hand - she is such a total sweetheart, once she settles she is wonderful, just still really shy and spooked from her former life I guess."

He thanked the many volunteers who helped save her.

"(T)hank you thank you thank you to all the people (especially the ones we don't even know) for volunteering and all the help - it has been an amazing example of what humanity is really about, instead of all the negative stuff we get to see in and on the news - Merry Christmas to everyone, and to Joanie!"

Magnificent Mutts Rescue will host a welcome home reception for Joanie and everyone who helped find her on Saturday, Dec. 28, at Elmhurst Animal Care Center, 850 S. Riverside Drive. Details will be posted on Joanie's Facebook page


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