A golden reunion for dog and owner

Cheryl Mann cut short a hunting trip in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania last month when it began raining, and headed for the car. Standing in front of the vehicle was an emaciated golden retriever.

Mann knelt down and petted the dog. She couldn't leave her out there, so she lifted her up and put her in the back of the car.

"We knew how it was to lose a dog, and we know how it would have been to get it back," said her husband, Neal, 68.

Cheryl Mann, 56, has had golden retrievers since she was 12. She and her husband, who live in Erie County, own their sixth. One of those six disappeared, and they never learned its fate.

That would not be the case with this retriever, whose owner was finally located and reunited with the dog - but only after she and Neal Mann each drove almost halfway across the country for the exchange.

After leaving the forest that day - Oct. 18 - Cheryl Mann stopped at two farmhouses and a small store to see whether they knew of anyone looking for a missing dog. No one was.

She contacted shelters and the humane society to see whether anyone had reported a missing dog, but still could not find an owner.

The next day Neal Mann took the dog to a veterinarian. She weighed 39 pounds - almost half her normal size. She had two bite marks around her rib cage that were mostly healed and not infected. "She was a bag of bones, really," he said.

The vet scanned the dog and found she had a microchip. It turned out the dog's name was Jezzy and belonged to Melissa Lopez, 22, of Las Vegas.

Lopez was called by the vet's office and said she had not seen her 6-year-old dog since July 4, when she was in the forest for a festival. She stayed a week after it was over searching for Jezzy, checking at the Warren County Humane Society, but no one had reported finding a dog. She returned to Nevada alone.

Lopez wanted to fly Jezzy home, but the vet told her the dog was in no shape for such a trip.

Lopez and Neal Mann worked out a plan. Each would drive and meet at a rest-stop parking lot in Oklahoma City. Cheryl Mann wanted to go, but she was taking care of her nephew, whose parents, coincidentally, had left for vacation in Las Vegas the day she found Jezzy.

Neal Mann left Oct. 22. After 105 days of meandering in the woods, fending off predators and hunger, Jezzy was homeward bound, though saying goodbye was bittersweet for Cheryl Mann.

"I cried all night Thursday and Friday morning when they left," she said.

Neal Mann stopped every hour or two to walk the dog and give her water and food.

"I love to drive, so it was kind of an adventure for me," he said. "It was very rewarding and satisfying to get the dog back to her owner."

The reunion in Oklahoma was joyous and tearful.

Mann let Jezzy out of the car and she ran right into Lopez's arms.