WEST PALM BEACH, Florida –
After a nearly week-long search, Athena found her way home to her Florida family in time for Christmas Eve and even rang the doorbell.
Athena, a four-year-old German shepherd-husky mix, escaped from her home in Green Cove Springs, Florida, on December 15, sparking a search through the community and nearby towns. Her owner, Brooke Comer, said her family went to church that day and received a message from her neighbor with a photo of Athena outside the house.
Comer panicked. Her family rushed home to find her necklace in the box and there was no visible opening through which Athena could have climbed out. How he escaped remains a mystery.
The events of the following week continued to be an “unbelievable” story for Comer, with neighbors and community members from nearby towns contacting her through her missing dog listings and sending her any materials or photographs in which they might have seen Athena. Based on all the alerts Comer received, it appeared that Athena made a nearly 20-mile round trip while she was missing.
With each alert, Comer and his family went to the place in a matter of minutes and looked for Athena, without success.
“She was the great hide-and-seek champion of all time,” Comer said. “With every sighting my heart jumped and honestly it was excitement and then the heart breaks because we were always one step behind.”
The entire search was a terrifying and frightening experience for Comer, who was worried about where her already skittish dog might have gone or been found. That was until 2:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve, when she received a Ring video notification on her doorbell and her other dog started barking.
“I was kind of stunned, and the dog was barking, and as soon as I heard that doorbell, I looked at my phone and you could see on the video that it was Athena and she was jumping up to the door, ringing the doorbell,” Comer said.
As soon as Comer opened the door, Athena ran in and went to lick the face of her son, who was on the couch half asleep. After that, he immediately grabbed his ball to play and soon after went to his cage to go back to sleep.
Comer said the experience gave a lot of hope because of the neighbors and the greater community searching for Athena over the past week. The next plan was to give Athena a complete exam, flea and tick treatments, and a microchip.
