Last summer, Kota Bean, a spirited yellow Lab, made a daring escape from her backyard when a storm wreaked havoc on the electric fence meant to contain her.
Known for her escapades, Kota had a history of breaking through barriers. However, this breakout had a different vibe.
“Kota has always been an escape artist,” shared Kellie Deck Tuten, Kota’s mom, on Facebook. “We have been through countless crates, kennels, cages, and all sorts of ways to contain her during the very few hours we needed her contained.”
Normally, when Kota escaped, she wouldn’t wander too far from home. If her parents couldn’t locate her on the same day, she’d reliably return on her own later.
But this time, day turned into night, and Kota was nowhere to be found.
The Tutens immediately sprang into action, launching a campaign to spread the word about Kota. They distributed flyers and contacted every nearby animal shelter in their quest to find
her.
Despite their exhaustive efforts, a year passed without any sign of Kota. The Tutens were on the verge of giving up.
Then, a few weeks later, a familiar face appeared on the Bibb County Animal Shelter’s website.
“They shared it with a general location in the description, and that’s when I saw her,” Tuten wrote. “I KNEW it was her.”
Recognizing the area, Tuten contacted a friend who lived nearby. The friend confirmed seeing Kota and kept Tuten informed after every new sighting. However, Kota always vanished by the time Tuten arrived.
Then, another helper, Lisa Wood, emerged with insights into Kota’s life since her escape.
“[L]isa Wood … had been feeding my dog twice a day, took in her (not 1 but 2 litters of) puppies and found them all loving homes,” Tuten wrote.
Wood had recently seen Kota, but the whereabouts of her latest litter of puppies remained unknown. Joining forces, Wood and the Tutens embarked on a mission to locate Kota’s offspring and reunite their long-lost pup with her family.
Despite Kota’s evasive maneuvers, Wood managed to get close enough to slip a collar with a GPS tracker over her head. The team then followed Kota to the exact location of the puppies.
However, they were still out of reach.
“[K]ota ran up to [a] drain pipe and sniffed and then ran back several feet and laid down,” Tuten wrote. “[W]e were pretty certain the puppies were in there … but we couldn’t hear or see them.”
With the assistance of friends Amy Beth Wall and Sean Wall, the team eventually cut into the tunnel in an attempt to reach the little family better.
After hours of digging, they successfully pulled four plump puppies out of the drain pipe.
While the Tutens were joyous to have the babies in their arms, Kota remained too frightened to join.
“It wasn’t until the next night that we were able to get Kota to jump in the car with us and the puppies and come home,” Tuten wrote.
Today, Kota and her puppies are back in the Tuten household, thriving once again.
