Lost in The Snow, Budd Lake Dog Found Through Social Media

MOUNT OLIVE - The search for a local homeowner’s dog last month snowballed into a community affair and its outcome was nothing short of relief.

Michele Grimes, a Budd Lake resident for 26 years, lost her dog Nala on the morning of Tuesday, March 14, during the worst snowstorm of the season. The 2-year-old Morkie was missing for six hours before she was found. Her white coloring blended in with the snow that fell a good portion of the day and covered inches deep.

“The back gate was accidentally left open,” explains Grimes. “She did not have any identification on her. Her harness was tangled so I took it off her that morning. So, not only was she out in a snowstorm, she also had no ID.”

Nala went missing around 9 a.m. near New Street and Orchard Street in Budd Lake and was found around 3 p.m. that same afternoon, thankfully!

“I totally panicked,” describes Grimes. “She’s so tiny and it was snowing like crazy. To say I was beside myself is an understatement. I also didn’t want to have to tell my husband that his dog was missing!”

Grimes acted fast using all resources she knew to bring Nala back home.

“I immediately posted that she was missing on my personal Facebook page as well as Mt. Olive Community Page and called animal control,” says Grimes. “The response was amazing. So many people shared my post. Strangers and neighbors were walking and driving around looking for her. Animal control was out for over two hours looking. It really was incredible how many people in our community helped. Even plow guys and bus drivers were looking for her! My husband and kids left work early to help. I was out looking for her almost all day.”

Exhausted and losing hope, Grimes received some promising news.

“Our old dog walker stopped at my house,” explains Grimes. “She had been out looking for her too! She had asked a neighbor if they had seen Nala and they said they had seen her that morning and saw a work van stop and pick her up around 10:30.”

She was picked up right in her neighborhood on Anderson Place, says Grimes.

“Since we hadn’t heard anything we figured whoever took her was probably going to keep her,” she continues. “I called animal control to give him that update and he told me he had gotten a message that someone found her and he wanted to get all of the info. and he’d call me back. As soon as I hung up with him, the people that found her called me! They had posted in the com- munity group that they found a dog and everyone started tagging me. Sure enough it was Nala. My husband jumped in the car and went to pick up my little five-pound frozen dog that was all wrapped up in a blanket sitting on her saviors lap.”

A local woman tied to her rescue explains how she was found.

“My father-in-law was just picking up some dry cleaning and saw a girl trying to get the dog but the dog was nipping at her, so he took his jacket off and scooped up the dog,” explains Holla Vizzio. “He brought the dog home and my mother-in-law and I posted her on the Facebook page group and saw there was already a post about the dog Nala. We called the owners and while they were on their way, my mother-in-law and I took a hair dryer and took almost all of the clumps off of the dog when the owner arrived.”

Beyond grateful, Grimes got the rescuers a gift card to LongHorn Steakhouse.

Nala may now be known as the little dog saved on that snowy day, but this was not her first time rescued.

“We rescued her a year ago,” says Grimes, when they first got her from the Pet Adoption League.

“She is very picky about who she associates with,” describes Grimes of Nala’s personality. “She loves kids!

Being a rescue dog, you don’t get to know what their life was like before but we’re pretty sure the kids were nicer to her than the adults. She absolutely loves her Daddy. She goes crazy when he comes home from work and is attached to him for the rest of the night.”

They also have other pets.

“We have two very spoiled potbelly pigs,” laughs Grimes. “Yes, they live in the house. Yes, they go potty outside like a dog.” And they also escape.

“My one potbelly pig is an escape artist,” she shares. “He’s usually eating grass in someone’s yard close by thank God.”

As far as advice to others who lose their pets, Grimes advises to “post it everywhere you can on social media.”

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