Dog Missing for 3 Weeks Wanders Up to Her Owner’s Register at Walmart

On November 8, June Rountree discovered her beloved dog Abby’s collar and leash in her backyard, but the black pup was nowhere to be found.

For three weeks, she and her husband circled their neighborhood in Dothan, Alabama, looking for the four-year-old dog.

Then, on November 28, Rountree was working her regular cashier shift at the local Walmart when she heard a commotion. There was a dog running around inside the store, and people were trying to catch it as it darted through the aisles.

The frantic pup appeared to be looking for someone.

“I said, ‘It can’t be,’” Rountree recalled to The Washington Post. “I called her name and she came to me. I bent over and hugged her. I completely lost it then. I couldn’t speak. I was in complete shock and just couldn’t believe it.”

Danielle Robinette, a customer service associate at the Walmart who witnessed the miraculous reunion, shared photos of the moment on Facebook.

“She looked up with tears streaming down her face and said: ‘This is Abby. She’s been missing for three weeks,’” Robinette told the Post. “I was just floored.”

Rountree has worked at that Walmart for 10 years. Though Abby had never before been inside the store, she had been to the parking lot and woods behind the store several times.

“I suspect that the dog was roaming around somewhere at random until it stumbled upon a familiar location,” Clive Wynne, a psychology professor, author and the director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, told The Washington Post. “I think it is perfectly plausible and very likely that this dog was distressed and upset and trying to find home. A dog’s navigation isn’t perfect, but it does recognize certain important, large landmarks.”

Noting that she wasn’t skin and bones,” Rountree believes somebody must have been feeding Abby while she was gone. “I want to thank whoever she came upon that gave her something to eat” she said.

“It really is just unbelievable,” Rountree said. “It’s like a dream. You can’t make this stuff up.”