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\u201cThe START team got ahold of me and said, \u2018Hey, look at this.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Oh! It\u2019s her!\u201d Krueger recounted. \u00a0\u201cI think I put 127 flyers in that neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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And why was she willing to extend the effort for a dog for whom she was no longer responsible? \u201cBecause I love her,\u201d Krueger says. \u201cAnd I really believed that she was trying to find me, and I wanted to make sure she didn\u2019t have to travel the rest of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Krueger\u2019s searching continued as multiple social media sightings showed Zelda had crossed the Mississippi River and had found her way back to St. Paul.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Then, someone snapped a picture of, what appeared to be Zelda, two blocks from Krueger\u2019s home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI couldn\u2019t sit still,\u201d Krueger says. \u201cI was just out – I would walk for an hour and come back and see if she was here, and immediately, back out for another hour.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Then, earlier this month – a couple miles from Krueger\u2019s house – Zelda wandered into an alley behind the home of Mike and Susan Willis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Zelda had chosen a fortuitous path.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI just started feeding her right away,\u201d Susan Willis says with a smile, \u201cbecause that\u2019s what Susan\u2019s do. They feed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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And sure enough, Susan\u2019s dinners kept bringing Zelda back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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For Taylor and Brunner, it was a major break. They set up a trail camera and captured overnight images of the hungry visitor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAnd I was thinking that\u2019s her, that\u2019s got to be her big fluffy tail,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The next night, Willis\u2019 food was placed inside a trap set up by Taylor and Brunner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Krueger was sleeping on the couch with her clothes on ready to roll, when the phone rang at 4:34 am.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She arrived in the alley a few minutes later, but initially had her doubts. \u00a0The dog in the cage seemed thinner than Zelda, with a lighter colored hair. Both turned out to be results of Zelda\u2019s time on the road.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Taylor checked the caged dog\u2019s implanted chip. The numbers matched. They had Zelda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Krueger fell to her knees crying. \u201cYou found me,\u201d she told Zelda. \u201cI never stopped looking for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In the week since, Krueger has officially adopted Zelda. The family in Chanhassen surrendered its rights to the dog that had stayed with them only a few days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI think we believe we choose dogs, but I really think it\u2019s dogs who choose us, and I think that\u2019s what happened,\u201d Krueger says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Taylor and Brunner have seen a lot during their searches for lost pets, but nothing that\u2019s compared to Zelda\u2019s 97-day odyssey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cShe brought us from Carver County to Hennepin County to Ramsey County. I wish I knew how she knew how to get here, but she made it,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Krueger has taken to calling Zelda \u201cThe Wonderdog.\u201d Spelled wonder or wander, Zelda has earned the title.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen I think how much work all of us put in to find her, she was putting in so much more work to find me,\u201d Krueger says. \u201cIt\u2019s love.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Adopted dog takes 97-day walk back to foster mom \u00a0 Author: Boyd Huppert Published: 4:20 PM EDT May 17, 2020 ST PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Zelda, a six-year-old German shepherd mix, may not have a pedigree. But no one can question her sense of direction. The skittish mutt found her way back to her old neighborhood…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Do We Choose Our Dogs or Do They Choose Us? - Rescue Dog Games<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n