[VatorMan]

It's like losing a child. On a Wednesday night, we had 70 MPH winds here. Little did I know that one of my gates had blown wide open. My most trusted dog had gone on walk about.
We realized about 10 PM Fergie was gone. I have a dog door so our dogs let themselves out. We did the drive around thing and no joy. I was sure she would come back for breakfast. Nope. I took the day off to search. I made a circle about a mile around. I had a hard time believing that she could have gone much further. We do have coyotes so I was getting concerned. Posted many flyers.
I was starting to lose hope when the wife heard about a nonprofit that has tracking dogs search for lost dogs. We had a German Shepard and her Handler track Fergie. Found out that she had been spending her time in a local utility right of way. We were given a series of things to do to guide Fergie back to our house.
Later that day, after putting out the feeding areas and such, a local number called me. He had found Fergie trying to break into his yard after his dogs food. Needless to say I raced over to his place, not 1/4 mile from me, and got my skin and bones dog. She wouldn't have lasted another day.
I thanked him profusely, (btw she wore a collar with lier name and my phone # on it). She drank water like it was gold and ate small bites of food. I took a selfie with Fergie and sent it to my wife who totally lost it when she saw her.
It's been a long week. Fergie is about 75% back to normal. She had several bruises that have me very suspicious. Looks like a person abused her. So I let the local police know.
We have purchased a GPS tracker device for all 3 of our dogs. This will not happen again.