Little dog lost for three cold days found in Hilton Head beach dunes by unlikely hero
They say it’s a dog’s world, and this story from Hilton Head Island proves it.
Coco, a 10-year-old Shorkie dog weighing 7 pounds, left her yard in Sea Pines for the first time ever last Thursday.
She was missing for three days, with temperatures dipping into the 30s on the three nights she was who-knows-where.
Enter Tully, a happy-go-lucky, 2-year-old golden retriever.
Tully found Coco when an army of people could not. Coco was more than 3 miles from home, buried in reeds in the sand dunes by the mighty Atlantic Ocean, her black hair matted with sandburs.
Tully was walking the beach at the crack of dawn Sunday with his owner, Anne Cramer Searles, and her sister Carol Cramer.
The gentle, 110-pound dog with cream-colored hair and weepy black eyes, went into the dunes at South Beach. It’s something he doesn’t usually do unless he sees a deer.
On this morning, Tully just sat there. He wouldn’t come. He lifted a paw, making his people think he had stepped on a sandbur.
“There was no bur,” Searles said. “He wasn’t crying. Then we saw this fur sticking up from reeds, and saw a little collar with sea turtles on it. I put my gloves on and lifted this poor little thing up. She wasn’t crying. She was trembling.”
Carol Cramer said, “It looked like it had purely given up. She was really nestled down in the reeds, which I guess was her way of survival. We would have never seen her, even if we had been walking right by her.”
But Tully sniffed out trouble. He apparently knew one of his kind was in distress, and stood by waiting for help.
Bianca King has had Coco since the dog came into the world, a super-loyal cross between a Shih Tzu and Yorkshire Terrier.
Coco is Bianca’s shadow, and so protective she fusses when Bianca’s husband, Randy, leans over to kiss her.
And since January a year ago, when Bianca’s father died, “Coco has been my emotional support as well.”
When Bianca and her daughter Gia King got home Thursday afternoon in their Lawton Woods neighborhood, the door was open and Coco was gone.
They searched by bike and foot. Bianca posted a notice on Facebook, which ended sort of like a prayer: “Please send our Coco home or guide us to where she is. Our heart hurts. She is scared, cold and alone.”
On Friday and Saturday, neighbors helped search. Security was notified. They used all social media. People told her things to do: Leave a bowl outside, put a piece of your clothes outside so Coco can smell it.
“For her age and her size, on Saturday night it wasn’t looking hopeful,” Bianca said. “The reality set in that my girl might not be coming home. She was a house dog. She didn’t even go into the woods. She’s never gone by herself.”
That night, Bianca posted on Facebook: “Reminding myself of God’s beautiful masterpiece and plan. Spending time with friends who have walked our neighborhood, talked to neighbors, driven around, etc., looking for Coco. I pray God has given her peace and she is in His arms if she can’t be in mine. Thank you all for texting , calls, messages, and having our girl and our family in your prayers.”
Early the next morning, the Cramer sisters got her to the home of their mother, Laura Cramer, a Sea Pines real estate legend. They wrapped her in a towel, and gave her some water and food. Coco jumped up on the sofa and made herself at home.
They called the veterinarian listed on Coco’s rabies tag. They called the Hilton Head Humane Association. Carol posted a photo on Facebook, and they took the dog to the Humane Association when it opened.
Lindy Russell saw the post about the found dog, and through Facebook, pointed the people to this little miracle in a dog’s world. Coco was home shortly after noon. She ate two bowls of food, a record for a nibbler. She got a warm bath.
“We have no idea how she made it,” said Bianca, a sixth-grade math teacher at Hilton Head Island Middle School, where her students helped her rejoice on Monday.
“There are gators and coyotes and everything else. I’d love to hear her stories.”
Anne Searles credits Tully’s strong sense of smell.
“Sometimes,” said Randy King, a math teacher at Bluffton High School, “you just don’t know how far hope can go.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 4:30 AM.
