Missing service dog found safe, returned to Collier girl, 6, who is paralyzed

Adam Friedman | Naples Daily News

A half-mile away from home, scared and a little scraped up, Sadie, an Australian shepherd service dog to 6-year-old Hannah Ahlquist, was still doing tricks for the woman who found her after Sadie went missing July 3.

“Normally, she doesn’t stray very far from the yard,” Hannah’s grandfather Jeff Ahlquist said Friday. “It was dark out and maybe some fireworks startled her and by the time she settled down she was probably a few blocks down the road and couldn’t find her way back.”

Sadie ended up at Rock Creek RV Resort in East Naples, where Shirley Gifford, a worker there, found her the morning of the Fourth of July.

“I was doing my rounds in the golf cart when I saw this little brown and white dog,” she said. “You could see she was exhausted, almost like she had been running all night.”

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Ahlquist lives on Estey Avenue about a half-mile away from Rock Creek.

At first, Sadie was hesitant but started following Gifford and eventually settled down enough to enter the resort's offices.

“I wasn’t able to get near her collar, but I knew she wasn’t a stray, so I started calling the Humane Society and a few shelters,” she said.

Sadie spent the night with the owners of the Rock Creek RV Resort and was returned to Ahlquist on Thursday morning.

Sadie is 3 years old and still training to be Hannah’s service dog.

“Once Sadie settles down and is a little more trained, she'll be there to play with Hannah and just keep her safe,” Ahlquist said.

Hannah was partially paralyzed when she was 3. A driver ran a red light in East Naples, hitting Jeffrey and Ana Ahlquist's car while their daughter Hannah was in the backseat.

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As soon as Sadie went missing, Hannah's grandfather started putting up fliers in his neighborhood. Hannah and her parents were out of town.

“My neighbors were very helpful,” he said.

One of his neighbors posted a flier to the Lost Animals of Collier County Facebook page and helped call nearby places to see whether anyone had found her.

“I thought maybe the Humane Society had called him about where the dog was,” Gifford said. “But apparently one of his neighbors called Rock Creek."

After finding Sadie, Ahlquist immediately came to get her.

“Kudos to the staff over at Rock Creek,” Ahlquist said. “They were instrumental in her return and keeping her safe.”

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