Dean’s best friend safe after four days lost in state park

17 and deaf, this Chesapeake Bay Retriever was finally found. Photo courtesy: Chris Roush's Twitter, @QUSOCDean

17 and deaf, this Chesapeake Bay Retriever was finally found. Photo courtesy: Chris Roush’s Twitter, @QUSOCDean

Luca Triant

Four days since pulling herself out of her collar and running into the wilderness, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Sadie, who is also deaf, was recovered by local park goers and Hamden Fire Department officials on Wednesday. 

Newly-appointed dean for the school of communications, Chris Roush, was walking his two dogs in Sleeping Giant State Park on Saturday when one of them, 17-year-old Sadie, ran out of sight.

“We were walking up the Tower Trail… we were getting ready to go back down. Then Sadie pulled out of her collar,” Roush said. “By the time I got my other dog situated so I could go after Sadie, she had went down a crevice and disappeared.” 

After hours of searching around the park, Roush was unable to find her. He tweeted that same Saturday, asking park goers to call him if they saw her. 

“We didn’t have any sightings until Wednesday,” Roush said.

It wasn’t until yesterday when four people, including both Quinnipiac professor, Laurie Grace, and assistant dean, Danielle Reinhart, located Sadie stuck in a hole. Firefighters from Hamden came with a stretcher and retrieved Sadie safely. 

Sadie is now at VCA Cheshire Animal Hospital. She was severely dehydrated and too weak to walk when she was pulled out, but is expected to walk very soon. 

“The Quinnipiac and Hamden communities were so helpful,” Roush said. “The fact that she is still alive is a miracle.”