Dog reunited with family after Hurricane Milton
Nearly three months after Miles, a redbone coonhound, vanished, generous strangers helped reunite him with his family in Ruskin.
RUSKIN, Fla. – A Ruskin family has been reunited with their dog that had been missing since Hurricane Milton.
Deborah Newell is eternally grateful to two complete strangers who located her redbone coonhound, Miles, after 86 days out on his own.
Newell said her four dogs escaped from the backyard during the storm.
“It damaged the fence, and they escaped that morning, October 10,” Newell said.
Deborah Newell’s dogs are back together after Miles, who had been missing for 86 days, was found. (Courtesy: Deborah Newell)
Shortly after, three of the dogs returned or were located nearby, but Miles was nowhere to be found.
“I made a poster,” she said. “I sent it down to Office Depot. They printed them off and my husband put them everywhere.”
But as the days passed, the hope that Miles would return home was fleeting. His brother, Curtis, who had been with him since they were puppies, began to lose his spark.
“Curtis had just sat by the kitchen window looking, looking. Sad. He lost his pep,” she said.
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Meanwhile, Jinger Gordon and Kent Hickman with Beach Paws Rescue stumbled across a call for help on Facebook.
“I saw a post on Ruskin Paws,” Gordon said. “A girl had been fishing the night before, pretty late. She said she saw a red hound that looked like a skeleton.”
But the bridge that the railroad nearby runs over was up, so the dog was trapped.
“That’s where our hobby came into play, because we love fishing and I woke him up and I said, ‘hey, we have fished here so many times,’” she said.
A Ruskin family has been reunited with their dog, Miles, who had been missing since Hurricane Milton. (Courtesy: Deborah Newell)
The couple made the two-mile trek down the tracks off Gulf City Road.
“We have been out to places in the middle of the night, and you don’t always find these dogs,” Hickman said. “So it was really cool that we found him because going out there, we really said, ‘eh, 10% chance we’re going to find this dog.'”
Gordon and Hickman documented the journey with videos. In one video, Gordon said, “We have walked the tracks pretty far because there’s no road and look who we see up here. It’s the red hound.”
The couple stumbled across Newell’s posts on social media about Miles and called her.
A Ruskin family has been reunited with their dog, Miles, who had been missing since Hurricane Milton. (Courtesy: Beach Paws Rescue)
“We called her, and she said, ‘That’s my Miles. That’s definitely Miles.'”
Minutes later, Newell arrived with water, food, and Curtis’ blanket to lure Miles in. After minutes of Newell calling out to Miles with treats, Miles came out of a bush to smell the blanket.
“I looked to my left and there he was creeping towards the blanket,” Newell said. “He took the treat, and he ran over to me and sort of fell into my arms.”
Now Miles is back home and will slowly be reintroduced to the other dogs.
A Ruskin family has been reunited with their dog, Miles, who had been missing since Hurricane Milton. (Courtesy: Deborah Newell)
“His brother Curtis is probably 100 pounds, give or take, as Miles was nearly 43 pounds when we took him to the vet,” Newell said.
Beach Paws Rescue hopes this will serve as a lesson.
“If you see something, say something. It makes all the difference in the world,” Gordon said.
For more information on Beach Paws Rescue, click here.
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