Nearly 600 miles and four years later, a missing dog is rescued just minutes away from the Mexico border.
Benjamin Baxter told sister station KETV that he never thought he would see Patches again after she wandered away from a family friend’s house in Colorado in 2020, but last week, she was found by a shelter in New Mexico.
“The best way to describe that day was just utter disbelief,” Baxter said.
Disbelief that after nearly four years, his childhood dog, Patches, is still alive and safe.
“They had put a lost or a found ad up for her, and I’m looking at this picture, and I’m just like, there’s no way, right?” Baxter said. “I haven’t seen this dog in four years, and there’s just no way my brain literally could not comprehend that I was seeing a picture of my dog as she is now.”
Baxter said he first brought Patches home 10 years ago when he was just 13 years old and Patches, was just 6 weeks old. He says they were instant best friends.
“I traveled all over the country, state to state and bounced around here, there and pretty much everywhere, and she was there by my side through everything,” Baxter said. “I would be hunting, rock climbing or whatever, and she’d be right there. She was the only dog I’ve ever been around that actually loved rock climbing, but she’d always have this big, goofy grin on her face the whole time.”
But in 2020, Baxter made a difficult decision after his new living situation didn’t allow dogs. He had to leave Patches with a family friend in Calhan, Colorado, while he moved to Nebraska for a new job.
“She [family friend] decided that she would take Patches from me until I could find another place where I could have a dog with me,” Baxter said.
But just a couple of months later, in April 2020, Patches escaped her kennel and was nowhere to be found.
“I thought, OK, you know, like this isn’t a big deal,” Baxter said. “And like I said, she’s a Houdini, so she loves wandering and we’ll get her back fast. But, the days go by, weeks go by. Nothing, I mean, absolutely nothing. Nobody ever responded to any of our lost posters or ads or whatever. By day seven, I started realizing that we weren’t going to find this dog, and I was devastated.”
Patches was missing.
Until this year.
On Jan. 31, Elizabeth Baxter, Benjamin’s wife, got a call from Benjamin’s mom.
“She’d been getting missed calls from an area code in New Mexico saying that they had Patches, and she’s like is this a scam?” Elizabeth said. “Is this not? I don’t know.”
After several phone calls and emails containing Patches’ past medical records, photos and documentation, it was clear this was, in fact, not a scam.
“They’re [shelter who found Patches] like, If you want her back, she’s yours,” Elizabeth said. “And I was like, for sure, we want this dog back because I knew how much it would mean to him [Benjamin] to have her back.”
A day Benjamin never thought would happen. He said at this point, he thought Patches had either found a new home, was eaten by predators, or had simply passed from old age.
But, Patches had been found as a stray in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hundreds of miles away from her home.
“All in all, like, considering the circumstance of her being found on the street as a stray, like, she looks very, very good,” Elizabeth said.
And with the help of multiple shelters and volunteers, Patches is on her way home. Over the last week, Patches has traveled from New Mexico back to Benjamin’s family friend’s house in Colorado.
“I’m just excited to get my dog back,” Benjamin said. “We’ve got lots of time to make up for, and I just want to give her a place where she can be at peace and be at rest in these last couple of years that we’re going to get together.”
Reuniting with his long-lost best friend, Benjamin said he plans to drive to Colorado by next week to bring Patches home for good.
“If only an animal could tell you stories, because I would love to find out how the heck she can just disappear and where she was, who she was with, how she ended up so close to Mexico,” Benjamin said.
Both Elizabeth and Benjamin are grateful to the shelters and family that have helped bring Patches home safely.
“We’re just really grateful,” Elizabeth said. “We feel like, we’re really strong believers, and we feel as though God has really just guided and directed this.”
The Baxters have set up a donation fund to help thank those shelters and volunteers, if you would like to donate, click here.