Tennessee boxer home after lost at Lake Forest oasis

Father's Day for a Tennessee family was extra special with the safe return early Sunday of the family dog that had been on the loose for a week in a Mettawa neighborhood.

Chopper, the 65-pound boxer, finally reached his destination with the Sanchez family near Knoxville.

“Aside from the pads of his paws being very worn and tender and a few pounds lighter, Chopper looks good,” John Sanchez reported Sunday afternoon. “He got home, greeted us and then went straight to bed.”

The plight of the friendly dog surfaced June 16 when Mettawa Village Clerk Cathy Nelson received an email from a resident in a small subdivision bordering the Tri-State Tollway near the Lake Forest oasis.

The resident asked if the village could help as a dog was “standing by her deck howling” in the middle of the night, Nelson said.

“Almost everybody on the two streets was aware of the dog and he had been there for a week,” she said. “Nobody had been able to catch him and no one had reported him.”

Chopper's journey began Thursday, June 9. Lourdes Sanchez, her 11-month-old son, Lucas, and Chopper were heading home from Milwaukee, where they had been visiting friends and family. John Sanchez had been in Georgia and they planned to reunite at home in Tennessee for the weekend.

According to John Sanchez, his wife was involved in an accident as she was getting off the tollway at the oasis. While she was checking to make sure everyone was OK, Chopper jumped out of a broken window.

“After everybody calmed down, they looked for Chopper and he was nowhere to be found,” John Sanchez said.

Sanchez, who said he has a background in law enforcement, called animal shelters in Lake County and other areas, as well state police and county sheriffs in southern Wisconsin and the Chicago area.

“They were very thorough but made me feel comfortable. They don't get the recognition they deserve,” Sanchez said of the dispatchers.

He arranged for his family to fly home, but there was no word of Chopper.

“He's a sweetheart,” said Sanchez of the pooch, who will be 4 years old in October. “He's very friendly but probably didn't recognize anybody and was scared.”

Meanwhile, Chopper began making appearances in the neighborhood, but attempts to lure him were unsuccessful. Sanchez said the dog is allergic to many foods.

“My biggest concern was he was going to have all these allergic reactions,” he said.

Since a large field in the area is unincorporated, Nelson decided to call Lake County animal control after receiving the email. They had Sanchez's information and she contacted the family.

“Just by dumb luck we discovered who this dog was,” she said.

Friends of the Sanchez family from Milwaukee drove to Lake County immediately, and with Nelson and other residents, began looking.

Recognizing the friends' voices, Chopper was lured with a bowl of water and corralled within an hour of their arrival. He was “very clean” and in surprisingly good shape, according to Nelson.

Chopper was taken to a vet in Milwaukee and was reunited with his family about 3 a.m. Sunday.

Besides the worn paw pads, Chopper had some gashes on his leg, a few fleas and ticks and a rash, but no infections or broken bones.

So how did the “big baby” of a dog with the healthy appetite get along all those days?

“I've never seen him hunt,” Sanchez said. “I don't know how he survived.”