Four Corners dog missing for 7 years found in South Carolina

FARMINGTON, N.M. – A 16-year-old dog from New Mexico still had some new tricks up his sleeve when he turned up multiple states away. 

“Nugget,” a Jack Russell Pug, went everywhere with his owner Jessie Springer.

“I mean this dog never left, he was on a ranch most of his life or in the country, so he always stuck by the house no matter where we were,” said Springer. 

But in 2015, Nugget disappeared.

“I was at my friend’s house in Farmington, we went to dinner, and he was in her yard. We came back like an hour and a half later, and he was gone,” Springer said.

Springer checked for holes in the fence and started searching.

“I drove all over the place, you know, Farmington is not that big and called all the shelters and went to the shelters and nothing. So, I was like man maybe he died,” said Springer. 

Springer was devastated, “he was my baby.”

For the next seven years there was no sign of Nugget until one rainy evening in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina.

“Nugget was found by Jen, he actually walked up to her house that night, and she took him to the emergency room, and had him scanned for a chip because she thought he was in pretty bad shape,” Angela Gschwind, founder and director of Carolina Loving Hound Rescue said.

That scan revealed that Nugget was from New Mexico.

“How did the dog get here? And what’s the story? That’s one of those moments where you wish the dog could actually talk,” Gschwind said.

But what they did know, is it was time for Nugget to go home.

Springer said she got a text from South Carolina, asking if she was looking for a dog.

“I’m like what? She says ‘it’s a little yellow dog named Nugget’ and I immediately called her,” Springer said. 

Soon after Carolina Loving Hound Rescue was able to raise enough money to fly Springer to Greenville, South Carolina to pick up Nugget.

“I had this music playing to try and like, hold it together and man as soon as I saw him, I ran down the stairs and just lost- I started crying. I never expected in a million years any of this to happen,” Springer said.

Springer wasn’t the only one crying.

“There was not a dry eye in the house, I think the entire airport, because people were coming out and watching, even my most harden volunteers and tears running down their eyes,” Gschwind added.

Gschwind said this happy reunion would have never happened if Nugget wasn’t microchipped and registered. It also is important that if you pick up a stray animal to get it scanned for a microchip because it could belong to someone nearby.

As for Nugget, Springer says he has a long road to recovery ahead but each day he is gaining strength.