7-pound pooch survives snowstorm and freezing temps after being lost for 3 days
Trixie was found Tuesday after being missing in the bitter cold.
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A 7-pound chihuahua was rescued after three days in a snowstorm and freezing temperatures.
"She’s gone! She took off and she’s gone and I just went into a panic," said Esther McNulty, who was dog-sitting for a friend when she got the call from her husband and son that the dog had run away.
Hours before the first snowflake fell, the 7-pound, 2-year-old chihuahua darted out of the McNulty house in Summit, where she was staying while her mom was on vacation. All she had on was a hot pink collar and managed to survive the worst snowstorm the state has seen in a decade.
"My husband said that he came to take our other dog Stella out. She came out of nowhere and bolted," McNulty said.
And that began a three-day search, that included police, thermal drones, animal control, animal trackers, search dogs and old-school missing dog flyers.
Finally on Tuesday, after almost a foot of snow had fallen in the area and subzero temperatures, a good Samaritan found the dog at a busy intersection a mile and half away from the McNulty home and turned her in to police.
"She’s like 'Trixie is there, go there right now - stop whatever you’re doing go.' And I first I like dropped to the ground cause I couldn ’t believe it crying hysterically, and we quickly went over there and it was her," McNulty said.
News 12 talked to Trixie’s mom, Holly Rilinger, who was on a layover and finally able to get a flight home.
"I’m so proud of her. I knew she was feisty you can tell she’s a rescue. In hindsight, she’s the most capable of any of my dogs of surviving," Rilinger said.
Rilinger said this isn’t the first time the dog has run off, but after this time, she’ll now be wearing a tracker.
"When the police called me, and said 'we have her,' I knew it was it because she has a phone number on her neck. It was like a miracle. I felt like a miracle," Rilinger said.
