Missing dog back home after community search in St. Joseph

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. (FOX 9) - A 2-year-old Yorkie mix was back with his family in time for Christmas after they spent seven days searching for the lost dog near St. Cloud.

Many strangers aided in the land search using drones, fliers, signs and more.

"We were getting multiple people that were kind of saying you need to accept reality. He’s probably gone, you should go home," owner Kalina Skillingstad told FOX 9 on Wednesday. "It was looking bleak, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t multiple times that I thought this is it, he’s not coming back."

"I went to the area that he was last sighted, and I set up a tarp. My plan was to sleep in the woods until he picked up a scent, or maybe heard my voice," Skillingstad continued.

Then, after seven days of searching, Huevo was found about a mile and a half from where he first took off. "It was incredible, I could not have anticipated a better Christmas gift," Skillingstad said.

"The timing of him coming back was an absolute Christmas miracle," pet-sitter Megan Holderness continued. "It could’ve been disastrous, we could’ve never seen him, never known what happened… it’s a very happy ending to a very long week."

After a week on his own, the 8-pound dog has lost close to 1 pound. He also broke his femur and will have surgery for that on Wednesday. However, searchers believe the injured leg may have been what slowed him down long enough to allow for the Christmas-time rescue.