A dog disappeared for 54 days after tornado. 'Bella' was reunited with her family Sunday.
Following a deadly EF4 tornado that struck Cookeville, Tennessee, on March 2, good news was hard to come by in Middle Tennessee. Nineteen were killed and scores more injured after the furious 175-mph twister carved a path of destruction through the sleeping town shortly after 2 a.m. a day later.
But, sometimes after disaster, communities come together and bring out the best in people.
As daylight dawned in Cookeville after that horrific night and the scope of the devastation became clear, Sarah Romeyn knew she had to help. She learned a family had lost their home and their dog, Bella, in the tornado. Romeyn's now credited with reuniting Bella with her aching family, some 54 days after the life-changing storm blew through.
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The heartwarming reunion was more than a month in the making. On Sunday, Bella - an Australian shepherd that went missing from the home of Eric and Faith Johnson - was returned to her family.
Bella had awoken the pair and their children on the night of the storm moments before the tornado struck. Seconds later, their house was leveled - reduced to rubble. The family escaped with their lives, but as they emerged from the wreckage following the storm's passage, they realized something was missing: Bella.
Miles away, Romeyn - who loosely knew the Johnsons from church - was unaware that anything out of the ordinary had occurred in town.
"My husband and I had watched Netflix and then went to bed," she recalled. "I woke up once during the night to thunder, but I went back to sleep not thinking anything had happened."
It wasn't until the next morning when she awoke without electricity or cellular service that she realized something was wrong.
"When I went to leave for work, I joked and said 'welp, honey, if this is Armageddon, I love you. Otherwise, I'll see you tonight."
Only when Romeyn turned on the radio did she discover what had happened. Bruce, Romeyn's husband, headed to the church to help in the recovery. The facility had transformed into a meetup location for families desperately searching for word on their loved ones' fates.
"They had the family members, and all the pictures were being lined up. They had the health department and the counselors," said Romeyn.
She had learned through Facebook that Eric and Faith Johnson, and their children - fellow parishioners - had survived the storm. But when Elizabeth Ramsay, the church pastor's wife, informed Romeyn that their dog Bella was missing, Romeyn knew she could help.
"I was like 'you know what Elizabeth, that I can take care of,'" said Romeyn.
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Romeyn teamed up with A.A.R.F. - All About Rescue and Fixin', Inc. - in Cookeville to borrow surveillance cameras, and, drawing on the "trapping" experience of Sarah Fostello at Big Fluffy Dog Rescue, set out to bring Bella home.
"There were still so many people doing search and recovery. . . and so much activity that we knew Bella was going to kind of lay low," said Romeyn. Bella, described as a "skittish" dog, had been spotted near downtown Cookeville about two weeks after the tornado.
With Bella presumed to be in a commercialized area, the stakes were higher.
"Dogs that are scared just run, and they don't know if they're running into a six lane highway," said Romeyn. "That area is so busy. There's a Kohl's, Hobby Lobby, T.J. Maxx. . . that's where all that is."
But that's precisely when the fallout of covid-19 shuttered businesses and left daily routines grinding to a halt.
"I kept being grateful it was less busy," said Romeyn.
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Romeyn spread the word about Bella's status, even soliciting tips with the help of the Putnam County Police Department. She urged residents not to approach Bella on their own, knowing how easily Bella would spook.
"A lot of times, animals don't react well. . . when you overwhelm all of their senses, they only know how to run or fight," explained Romeyn.
Over the next several weeks, however, hope was dwindling.
"The leads on Bella really dried up," said Romeyn. She pressed on.
"I was still finding time searching in parking lots, but it was tough. Because nobody had found a body, in rescue you can't give up until you know you don't have a positive outcome. And I hadn't given up."
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Then a glimmer of hope appeared.
"I got a phone call from one of our friends, and another church member, Karen [Ritacco], who owns Cumberland Pet Grooming," recalled Romeyn. "She said 'Sarah, Bella's here, she's out behind the shop!' "
It was the end of a long workday when Ritacco made the discovery.
"Two of my employees were leaving for the night, and Bella was just standing there looking at them," explained Ritacco. "One of the girls knew and said 'that's the tornado dog.' When I went out, she had run through a really narrow alleyway. I went in and called Sarah right away."
Romeyn, who was downtown retrieving files from her office, returned the next day with cameras, food, and a steadfast determination to bring Bella home.
She spent much of Saturday leaving food out for Bella in an effort to make her comfortable with the area; only then could she formulate a plan for "trapping" the anxious dog.
"I was there on Sunday too," said Romeyn. "I did the food, I went to Starbucks, I sat in my car with their wifi live-streaming my church service. . . got a couple of cheeseburgers from restaurant next door. I went back and Bella had eaten the food I had already left, so I put more food out. Karen and I kind of talked about a plan."
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Ordinarily trapping a dog - particularly a traumatized one - can take days of building trust. Romeyn knew that they'd have only one shot.
"You're not going to have a second chance," she said.
When Bella emerged from an alleyway for the cheeseburger, Romeyn had an idea.
"[The alleyway] is between two buildings. It's maybe one hundred feet long. . . at one end is probably this 4 foot opening, it tapers off at the other end to maybe a foot wide, it's super narrow." She knew she could trap Bella in there - but she'd need a good deal of help.
She called her husband, her pastor, and Bella's owner, Eric Johnson - emotional at hearing Bella had been located.
"We made our plan. . . Eric and pastor Paul went to the wider end [of the alleyway] where the gate was. I went to the smaller end since I knew that I could lock that myself. They blocked off the crawl space underneath the gate."
With that, the team had Bella in an enclosed space. That's when she started to panic.
"It was heartbreaking," said Romeyn. But then, Eric Johnson called out to her.
"You could kind of see her stop, and you could see the wheels turning. . . there was something so familiar."
And then - it clicked. Bella was home.
"She turned herself inside out," said Romeyn.
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Though the Johnson's home was demolished, they plan to rebuild on their land. For the time being, they're staying at a rental property nearby.
The family's neighborhood was one of the hardest hit; Romeyn recently found herself driving through the damage path, and described the experience as "surreal."
"You can't say there was one damage area, because it just kept going for miles and miles."
And while homes, businesses, and property can be replaced - Cookeville still mourns the loss of the 19 individuals who perished at the hand of the storm.
"We went in a severely damaged neighborhood," recounted Romeyn. "They had the crosses on the crest of the hill. . . and you started seeing the crosses on the roadside. That was hard."
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The town's residents are still picking the pieces of their lives that were shredded and littered across the landscape that fateful Sunday night in March. But if there's one thing that's remained intact, it's the triumph of the human spirit that Romeyn says makes her community such a special place to live.
"I feel like our whole community had a part in bringing Bella back," she said. "I give it all to God. So many things had to come together to make this happen."
Romeyn hopes the miracle in Cookeville restores our faith in better times ahead.
"We're all looking for good news. We're going to find it. Sometimes we just have to look."
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