CRYSTAL LAKE, IL — A couple is grateful to have their dog back after being missing for almost a week. And all this thanks to the use of a thermal drone.
The dog’s owners say Charlie went missing a week ago Monday after being released on a foggy morning in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
The couple said they spent days trying to find him until they got help from a group using thermal technology.
A thermal drone scanned the family’s neighborhood for the missing animal.
Then suddenly the blue and green images became clear.
“Oh my God! I got it! Yes, we got it! We got it!” » said one of the rescuers.
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Video captured the moment 2-year-old Charlie was found on Sunday, just a two-minute walk from his home.
“And he was in this sort of park, with a walking path among tall grass and downed trees. And he was hiding there,” said Kate Belmonte, Charlie’s owner.
Belmonte and her fiancé, David Nowak, said that with the help of Dog Gone Pet Recovery, a local search and rescue group, they were finally reunited with their best canine friend.
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However, he was seriously injured. Charlie was taken to a veterinary hospital with a broken femur.
The couple is grateful for Charlie’s willingness to survive in the cold for nearly a week and the group’s efforts over several days to find him.
“It’s just incredible technology, and without it, to be honest with you, I don’t know we would have been able to find it,” Nowak said.
Charlie’s owners said he was still in hospital, recovering from surgery on Monday, but would be back home on Tuesday – where he can be warm and cozy with the couple and their two other dogs.
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