CHESHIRE — After 10 days of searching, Tucker and Leslie Deming thought their beloved 14-year-old border collie was lost forever.
Zep, short for Zeppelin, went missing on Oct. 4 after a short trip outside. Leslie Deming said Zep would usually leave through the front door whenever nature called, walk around the house and reenter a few minutes later. But this time he didn’t come back, and the Demings feared their dog—almost entirely blind and deaf—had met his demise.
“It was maybe a senior moment,” Leslie Deming said of Zep wandering into the woods behind the couple’s home at 230 Oregon Road.
Tucker Deming thought Zep had “picked his time,” similar to cats, which are known to run away from their caregivers to die alone.
“At least that was my thought for several days,” he said.
After putting up signs and visiting local shelters without success, the couple had all but given up hope. But then, in what Leslie Deming considers a “miracle,” she received a phone call on Oct. 20—16 days after Zep went missing—reporting that a dog matching Zep’s description had been found.
Pixie and Mark Nellis of 557 S. Meriden Road live nearly a mile away from the Demings home, and found Zep in their front yard “tick-infested and smelling like a feral dog,” said Tucker Deming.
“We were absolutely relieved,” Tucker Deming said. “He was a family friend for 14 years.”
The couple was worried because just three months earlier, Zep was barely walking. After receiving treatment, he was able to barely able to limp around, so the fact that he survived for 16 days is even more amazing to the couple
“When my husband looked in our woods, he saw evidence of a deer that was attacked by coyotes, with bite marks along its neck,” Leslie Deming said. “I was sick because I thought Zep had gotten eaten.”
Leslie Deming wanted to find Zep dead or alive. She wanted closure by having the opportunity to bury him. After 10 days, she expected her family pet was dead, but still held out hope the body would be found. She got more than she wished for.
“It’s a miracle every day I see him now,” she said.
What’s even stranger still is that Tucker Deming believes Zep has come back in better shape, besides his smell and appearance.
“He possibly got healthier,” he said. “He lost three pounds, and when he left he was already half alive and half dead. He came back and he was actually spritelier. I don’t have an answer for it.”
The Demings thanked their neighbors Brian Klanica and Tom Gosezewski for their efforts in searching for Zep. Leslie Deming said Klanica, who she described as a woodsman, spent nearly an hour every evening in the woods behind their house looking for Zep.
“Brian’s a neighbor that’s always there for his neighbors,” she said. “He just never wanted to give up.”
The couple, empty-nesters with two grown children, said they’re extremely grateful to the Nellis family, and are happy to have their dog back so they can enjoy the tail end of his life together.
“He’s been a really great dog all these years,” Leslie Deming said. “It’s just so special.”
aragali@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
Twitter: @AndyRagz
