Dog reunited with family after 4 months of survival following London tornado

LONDON, Ky. (FOX 56) — Observant and with her people is a way to describe Sadie Lou. Yet, no one is quite sure what she has been through over the last four months.

Her owners will never forget the moment they lost her in the blink of an eye, when the 7-year-old Rotweiler-Doberman mix was sucked out of their home during the tornado.

“It was down to him [her husband] or her, and he went to try to catch her; she was getting away from him, and the window started bursting at the same time, so he took shelter in the closet,” Tina Carnes, Sadie Lou’s owner, said.

That night on May 16, the Carnes lost their home, and Sadie Lou went missing. Two other pets, an eight-year-old Husky and a nine-year-old cat, were found alive in the rubble but traumatized.

Once the family relocated to a camper, those pets ran away, probably because they were disoriented.

After long days and weeks of searching down roads and through the woods, there was no sign of any of the pets. However, last week, they received a report of a potential sighting of Sadie Lou.

“Trying to survive in an area that she didn’t know and with scary people and strangers, she was hiding in a thicket in the forest,” Carnes said.

With the help of Carmi Rockwell and Terry Settle, with Timing is Everything Search and Recovery Inc., live traps were set near the London-Corbin Airport.

It was around 3:30 am, exactly four months after Sadie vanished, when the smell of baby back ribs and cheeseburgers lured her in, and now she is with her family.

Tina said the last few days have been all about the road to recovery, involving multiple trips to the vet hospital.

“She went from 115 pounds to 59 pounds,” Carnes said.

A lot more treatment will be needed.

“Right now, we’ve got to make sure her health is okay and then maybe we can do some dogging physical therapy and stuff like that,” Carnes said.

Tina added that she is confident her other two babies are out here alive, too, and may be near Levi Jackson Wilderness Road Park. She is hoping for two more miracles.

“Don’t give up, even when you think that there’s no hope, there’s hope. I mean, she’s proof of it,” Carnes said.

With the help of a grant, some of the vet services have been paid for, but with all the treatment ahead, Tina does foresee heavy expenses.

Anyone interested in helping Sadie on her road to recovery can find the family’s GoFundMe information here.