K-9 helps find missing therapy dog in Rhode Island woods

SCITUATE, R.I. (WJAR) — A beloved beagle -- and former high school therapy dog -- is now back with his owner after spending days lost in the woods.

Krissy Luongo's 9-year-old beagle, Kobe, wandered away through the woods behind her home in Scituate, Rhode Island last week.

He has this personality where he was very comforting to people," she said. "I just felt you know, he must be out there so helpless."

Kobe suffers from epilepsy, so the race to find him was made even more urgent.

My biggest fear was that he was in the middle of a field just incapable of moving," Luongo said.

After days of searching and a failed attempt to find Kobe with a thermal drone, she enlisted the help of Packleader PetTrackers.

We use scent specific canines to track down missing pets," owner Jamie Genereux said. "They need something that the dog made contact with -- bedding, a toy, a leash, something like that -- and they pick up the trail nearby, and then they follow it to its destination."

Their scent sniffing dogs narrowed the search down to one area and when they went to put up trail cameras to help the search, Kobe was found.

We ran right over and Kobe was just ecstatic and we were all just so overcome with emotion, happy, sad, relieved," Luongo said. "It's a great sense of relief just to know he's alive."

Once he was home and doing well, Kobe got to meet Dexter, one of the dogs that help trace his scent and lead to his rescue.

Dexter's a hero," she said. "It was a miracle to me."

Genereux said it was "awesome" to help reuntie Kobe with his family.

"It's the best feeling, you know?" he said. "That's why we do what we do is to see that at the end."