For dog parents, losing your dog is the worst feeling in the world. Luckily for 5-month-old Rocky’s parents, Bus Operator Christy Scott found him and made sure he got home.
“I was very lost and didn’t know what to do,” Jessie Oberfoell, Rocky’s parent said. “It’s like losing your own child.”
Rocky went missing late Friday, September 15 after squeezing through a small hole in their backyard fence. The next day, he appeared at East Metro Garage’s parking lot, where Scott found him after pulling into the garage to start her Saturday shift.
“He was shaking and scared,” Scott said. “He didn’t want to come to me right away, but I sat down and let him come to me.”
After coaxing him into her arms, she brought him inside and gave him to John Cook, assistant transportation manager for safe keeping while she went out on her shift. Cook made sure Rocky got food and water while they tried to find his parents.
That day, both Oberfoell and Scott had to work and worried about Rocky throughout their shifts. Oberfoell wondering if she’d ever see Rocky again, and Scott worried that they’d never be able to get him home to his family.
“I was checking telephone polls for lost dog signs and checking internet lost dog pages whenever I had a break,” Scott said.
Then, she found it: a post from Oberfoell with a picture of Rocky on the page Lost Dogs Minnesota. That Monday, only a few days after going missing, Rocky was reunited with Oberfoell. He immediately had a case of the “zoomies” and gave lots of cuddles.
“We feel complete again,” Oberfoell said. “It feels like a miracle – and I hope it shows people to not lose hope.”
Rocky’s discovery of East Metro may have been chance, but the teamwork that led to his return is a part of Metro Transit culture, Scott says. She credits another operator for pointing her to John Cook and for a street supervisor taking time to gather food Rocky while he was with Cook.
“I’m part of a team that cares and that makes me love my job even more,” Scott said.