The Haynes family can’t explain the journey of their beloved pet that went missing from their rural home last week.
Their pit bull-mix Sadie never returned home after a routine nightly outing.
But it’s a story with a happy ending.
“It is one of those stories with a good ending,” said Lisa Haynes. “We just can’t believe we got our dog back.”
Sadie was found almost 250 miles away in southern Mississippi, covered with fleas and ticks. But she was still in good spirits.
“She was so happy to be coming back home,” Lisa said.
Sadie isn’t just a pet. She is a member of the Haynes family.
The nine-year-old dog may be arthritic, but she still has that same spunk of a puppy ready to roam the countryside.
It was that desire to run that pulled Sadie away from the Haynes home late one evening.
“It was about 10:30 p.m., and we had let her out,” Lisa said. “Apparently, she decided to go hunting, maybe chasing a racoon or something.”
Not thinking much about it, the Haynes family went about their regular doings. But the next morning, they realized Sadie had never returned home.
Because Sadie an inside dog, worry began to settle in for the Haynes family.
However, things took a turn the next morning when Lisa received three strange phone calls, back to back.
“My (caller ID) kept saying it was a call from Florida,” she said. “Thinking it was a telemarketer, I didn’t pick up until the third time.”
A Florida woman visiting her sister in Wiggins was on the line. She said that she had what she believed was the Haynes’ dog.
“She said that she had stopped at a rest stop, and a dog came running up to her car and just jumped in,” Lisa said. “She said the dog won’t get out.”
Lisa said that at first she thought it might be a scam. But when the caller began to describe the dog, things seemed to come together.
The lady said the dog was white and tan in color and was wearing an orange collar.
And she also had one brown eye and one blue eye.
“When she said that, I knew that it was my dog,” Lisa said, with a laugh.
Lisa immediately called her farmer husband Scott.
“He never gets off that tractor, but he did this time,” she said. “He left the tractor in the field and made a mad dash to get Sadie.”
The woman took Sadie to a local veterinarian in Gulfport, and apologized for not sticking around. She had plenty of traveling to do that day.
Sadie was covered in fleas and ticks. She had to be immediately dipped at the vet’s office.
Three hours later, the Haynes family were reunited with Sadie.
“If we only knew what had happened to her,” Lisa said. “We think somebody must have stolen her, thinking she would be a good fighting dog. But the poor thing is so old. It takes her ten minutes just to get up. They probably realized they didn’t need her.”
Lisa said these kind of stories usually end bad. But she is happy to have Sadie back at home.
And they think they have an idea of what might have saved Sadie from her possible kidnappers.
“Sadie ‘talks,’” Lisa said, with a smile. “She probably talked them out of it. She was talking too much, and they had enough of it. They just dropped her off.”
After a good cheeseburger and a bath, Sadie was on her way back to Yazoo County...with a story only she can tell.
And the Haynes family knows she will “talk” about it sooner or later.
