As Laila’s guardians planned to move from a large rural property to an out-of-state suburban area, they worried that Laila would not be happy away from the horses and cows she adored.

The family believed that rehoming Laila, a gorgeous Great Pyrenees, with someone who had large animals would be the best thing for her. They found what they considered to be a perfect location, a ranch with goats and horses! The ranch owners were experienced with Great Pyrenees and were thrilled to welcome Laila into their family.

Laila, however, had other ideas regarding her future living situation. The bond she had with her guardians was much stronger than they could imagine. After one week in her new home, Laila left the ranch and began wandering to reunite with her family. For two weeks, she traveled many miles and out of fear, refused to be caught by strangers who tried to help her.

During the search for her family, Laila began to cover the same five-mile area along a very busy highway. Sharon Stone, our Hope Animal Sanctuary Operations Manager, was asked to help when it became clear that Laila’s life was in jeopardy along the road where she easily could have been killed.

At our request, the new family reached out to the original guardians for their help. To assist with the difficult and dangerous rescue, we coordinated our staff and volunteers who acted as “spotters” to note and direct the guardian to Laila’s location.

We also reached out to the community on social media, asking anyone who saw Laila to post a comment or text us with her location and not to approach her. Thanks to those invaluable posts, we were able to determine Laila’s approximate location at any given time.

On the third day of our rescue efforts, just 30 minutes before we planned to meet, a citizen texted one of our volunteers with Laila’s location, and her original guardian was only 12 miles away.

When she arrived, Laila ran across the highway out of fear. Quickly, the guardian crossed the road and began calling Laila who slowed her pace. The guardian started speaking to Laila, who finally recognized and ran to her.

Today, Laila is back at home with the family she was so determined to reunite with.  She will share their new home, and we are sure she will learn to love the new location.

Without the help from our friends on Facebook and the wonderful volunteers, this rescue would not have been possible. Please make a donation today so we can continue our life-saving work.