Woman Quits Job And Spends 57 Days Searching For Her Lost Dog

When you lose a pet, it can be absolutely heartbreaking.

Carole King was in that scenario when her beloved Border collie Katie went missing in Minnesota while she and her husband Verne were on holiday.

It's believed the dog was spooked by thunderstorms and ran off into the night, never to be seen again.

Carole and Verne tried to search for the seven-year-old dog, however the dense terrain proved to be too difficult to get through. They did everything they could to coax Katie back into their arms.

They combed through the surrounding area, posted messages onto local Facebook pages, appealed to anyone who might have seen her dog.

They set up animal-tracking cameras, bought night vision goggles to search for her in the night and even laid items of their clothing in the forest, hoping Katie would find their scent.

They searched in abandoned buildings, handed out flyers at local sports games, looked through farms to see if there were any animal tracks they could follow.

They went off every tip and followed up with people even when Katie didn't match the description that the person was giving.

Mr King eventually had to go back to their hometown in Spokane, Washington, however Carole decided to stay and even quit her job as a postal worker to ensure she found Katie.

"Katie was just more important to me," Ms. King said. "I just said, 'I'll finish this week, and that's it.'"

That was 37 days after Katie initially went missing.

Carole continued her agonising search, growing more weary and less hopeful with every day and every dead end. She was about to throw in the towel until her husband convinced her to stay one more week to suss everything out.

Day 57 of the search, Carole got a call from someone saying that Katie was in their backyard and Ms King raced over. By the time they arrived the dog was gone, but Carole wasn't giving up. She raced around the area until she found a group of people walking and asked if they'd seen a Border collie.

Incredibly, they pointed to a dog under a tree. It was Katie.

At first, the dog was suspicious of the woman calling out her name but as Carole got closer, the Border collie raced into her arms.

"All I could think about was, 'I'm done. I got her,'" Ms King said. "I was crying, I was holding onto her, wrapped her up in a bear hug. I couldn't get her in the car fast enough to close her in so I wouldn't lose her again."

A quick trip to the vet confirmed that the dog she had found was Katie and the pair was able to return to their lives and reunite the dog with the rest of the family.

I'm not crying, you are.