Rescuers in Texas were able to find a woman with dementia
who was missing for three days with the help of her loyal companion – a dog
named Max.
Sherry Noppe, 63, took her three-year-old black dog, Max,
for a walk on May 3 last year. When Sherry, who had recently been diagnosed
with dementia didn't return to her home in Katy, her concerned husband and
children contacted law enforcement.
In no time, community members as well as search dog teams
from Alpha Search and Recovery and volunteers on horseback from Texas
EquuSearch were combing the area.
There was no sign of Sherry and Max until May 5, when two
search dogs alerted to her scent. Hours later, searchers heard a dog barking
from a thickly wooded area in George Bush Park in Houston. It was Max.
Family friend Michael England, who participated in the
search, told that Sherry and Max were found several hundreds of yards
into the woods, in a "super thick" and "marshy" area where
one could easily get lost.
"You can walk 50 feet in there and get turned
around," he said.
Both Sherry and Max received medical care and were reunited
with their family in time for a Mother's Day celebration.
"My mom is doing great," Sherry’s daughter Jessica
told. "She had a bunch of cuts all over and she was suffering from
dehydration, but at this point, she's back to normal. Everything's healed up
really well. She's in good spirits."
Max is also doing well. "He just has a little bit of a
scab around his nose, and he had a cut on his foot that's healing up
well," Jessica said, adding that Max slept for almost an entire day when
he got home.
Family and friends called Max a hero for helping rescuers
locate Sherry. "With Max, that dog had no leash, no collar, and stayed by
her side for three days," Sherry's son, Justin Noppe, told. "And that
just shows you the loyalty the dog has."
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