It started with a wrong-number phone call and ended with a senior dog being pulled from traffic on a Louisiana highway.
According to KTBS, Kiwi, a 14-year-old dog with hearing and vision loss, was reunited with his owner, truck driver Alexander Antelo, after nearly a week of searching.
Kiwi disappeared while Antelo was traveling through Shreveport, Louisiana, from Miami, Florida. A mistaken call to the Shreveport Dog Park Alliance helped set off a wider search on social media.
“We had an army looking for this dog,” Cynthia Kieth with the Shreveport Dog Park Alliance said.
Kiwi was blind and deaf, which left him at a particular disadvantage outside. Antelo was also trying to find him in an unfamiliar city.
The search shifted when KTBS reporter Rick Rowe took a different route and spotted Kiwi in traffic near Greenwood Road. Rowe got the dog out of danger and took him to a veterinarian.
That roadside rescue later led to Kiwi being identified and returned to Antelo.
Antelo said the rescue took a community effort, including social media posts, and that the pieces came together for a reason.
“There are a lot of good people in the animal rescue world,” Rowe said.
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