It began like any other ordinary day, January 8th, just after two in the afternoon. Work had been uneventful, the kind of day that leaves no mark. When I came home, Laska was already waiting by the door, vibrating with anticipation for her daily forest walk.

We walked those trails five or six times a week, covering five or six kilometres along a scenic path that runs beside the river. Rain or shine, it was our ritual. We walked quietly, side by side. Sometimes she would break away from the trail to chase birds – her favourite distraction, but she always came back.
Always.

Until that day.

We reached the end of the trail, turned around, and started back. Somewhere along the way, Laska darted off into the forest after a small bird, just as she had countless times before. I kept walking, unbothered. After a minute or two, I noticed she hadn’t returned.

I stopped and whistled. Nothing.

Her recall whistle – sharp and familiar –  had never failed. I tried again. Still nothing. I retraced my steps to where I had last seen her. I called her name. I whistled. I yelled. The forest answered with silence.

Minutes stretched into an hour. Then longer. Panic crept in, slow but unmistakable. This had never happened before. Laska was only seven months old – smart, affectionate, disciplined in most things. But when she chased birds, the world disappeared for her. Whistles, shouts, commands, none of it mattered.

And now, neither did I.

It was as if the earth had swallowed her.

I searched until the forest grew dark, walking the trails, pushing into brush, calling until my voice was raw. Eventually, there was nothing left to do. The area covered tens of thousands of acres. I was one man, alone, with fading light and no plan.

I went home.

That night, I reported her missing through the tracking service linked to the QR tag on her collar. If scanned, it would reveal her location and notify nearby veterinarians and shelters. It was all I could do.

Sleep didn’t come.

I don’t know whether it was a dream or imagination, but I saw her curled beneath exposed tree roots near the riverbank. When dawn came, I went straight back. My wife searched too. We found nothing.

Cold, wet, exhausted, and defeated, we returned home and made a hard decision; we needed help.

We reached out to neighbours, friends, and social media. The response was immediate and humbling. Search groups formed. People arrived with dogs. Strangers cared.

A family friend, Andrew, connected us with Karen, who specializes in locating lost pets using a drone equipped with an infrared camera technology capable of detecting even small heat signatures. Hope took a new shape.

I spoke with Karen from Halo’s Pet Rescue and arranged for her to come by, though she couldn’t arrive until Wednesday afternoon. That meant another night of rain, another night of cold, and another sleepless night for us.

By Day Three, Laska had been missing for forty-two hours.

Karen advised me to place food and a piece of clothing with my scent near the spot where we had parked because lost animals often return there. I did. One of the food bowls was eaten. Hope flared, then faltered. It could have been anything.

After heavy rain overnight, I checked the trail for tracks. Surprisingly, there were none.

That morning, I met two women walking their dogs. When I told them about Laska, they smiled gently and said, “We’re here to find her today.”

That moment stays with me.

More friends arrived, my son Luke and Karima among them. When my wife took over watching the parking area, I headed back down the trail toward the place I had last seen Laska.

Another searcher mentioned hearing a faint bark earlier, though he thought it belonged to another group. I left the trail and pushed into the forest, whistling and calling her name.

After an hour, I heard it – a faint bark. Directionless. Muffled.

Then again.

This time, I knew. It was her.

I followed instinct rather than logic, letting something older take over. Thirty minutes later, the bark came again, weak but closer. My heart jumped.

“I’m coming, love,” I shouted, my voice barely holding together.

The bark came again. Very close. Twenty feet, maybe less.

I stopped.

If she was that close, why couldn’t I see her?

Then it hit me.

She wasn’t above ground.

I scanned the area carefully and noticed a dense patch of ferns. Beneath them, a small opening. Something moved. I kicked aside the brush and uncovered a narrow, steel-reinforced well seven feet deep.

At the bottom was my puppy.

Cold. Filthy. Exhausted.

And alive.

Every sound she made said the same thing: Please get me out of here.

My first instinct was to jump in after her. Then reason intervened. I called my wife and asked her to bring a rope. As I hung up, Laska leapt four feet straight up.

“Can you jump that high?” I asked, stunned.

I dropped to my knees, leaned into the shaft, and stretched my arm as far as I could.
“Jump again, Laska.”

She did.

As if we had practiced it a hundred times, I caught her midair by the collar and pulled her free.

Weak and shaking, she still found the strength to celebrate tail wagging, body trembling with joy.

We did it.

Epilogue

After a quick rinse in the river and a bite of food from my pocket, we headed home. She received a proper bath, endless hands petting her, and the quiet relief of warmth.

We gave her a toy we had bought the day after she went missing a small stuffed hamster with a red heart around its neck. A homecoming gift.

In true puppy fashion, she deconstructed it in less than two hours.

If you’re wondering about the title, Finding Love, there’s a reason.

In Slovak, Láska means love.

And that, after all, is exactly what we found.

By Tibor Bogdan 

assisted by AI