LOST, FOUND, HOMEWARD BOUND

A collection of heart-thumping, tail-wagging, zoomies-inducing pet reunion tales

- Cathy Free, Bill Hangley Jr, Justin Jouvenal, Dana Hedgpeth

Riley's Mountain Rescue

A hiker saves a lost dog-and a widower from added grief

ZACH HACKETT WAS 12,000 feet up a Colorado mountain last May when he thought he heard a faint yip. As he walked through a clearing, Hackett, 33, found the source: a black and white Shetland sheepdog, shivering behind fallen pine trees.

"I was a little startled, because dogs shouldn't be up there so high," says Hackett, who had been hiking all day in Breckenridge.

"Hey, buddy," he called out. "You want a cookie? Can you come with me?"

The dog was too weak to move. Spring temperatures dipped below freezing at night, and the dog looked near death.

"I believe what I'd heard was his last cry for help, and that if I hadn't come along, he would have died there," Hackett says.

Five weeks earlier, Mike Krugman, 74, had let his dog Riley out for a predinner walk on his nearby 36-acre property.

"I got his kibble ready, and when he didn't come back, I didn't worry at first," Krugman says.

When Krugman went to the barn and couldn't find his dog, he became concerned and rode around the property on his all-terrain vehicle.

"I thought, Maybe Riley has gone looking for Pam," says Krugman.

His wife, Pam Krugman, had died of a heart condition months earlier.

"When Pam passed away, he hid behind the bed for several days," Krugman says. "You could tell he really missed her."

The next morning, Krugman looked for the sheltie's tracks in the snow and asked a local animal shelter to help search. A volunteer posted "missing" posters and scoured the area for Riley. But no one found him. Weeks passed, but Krugman couldn't give up hope.

"I left his food bowl out for him," Krugman says. He even left out his wife's housecoat, thinking her scent might bring Riley back.