For more than three years, Ariel the Great Dane wandered the fields of northeast Thornton, leading a tough and lonely life, enduring winter storms and harsh summer heat.
The dog, often seen trotting along fences and ridgelines – a large, black specter – eluded numerous attempts to catch her and even escaped unfazed when hit by a tranquilizer dart.
“I called her Shadow because she seemed to be afraid,” said Brenda Siegfried, who watched the dog last year from her house at 6952 E. 131st Way in Thornton.
Alarmed at the emaciated state the mystery dog was in, she began to put out food and water. The dog would eat hungrily, then retreat to her den, hidden somewhere in the ravines in undeveloped land.
Then last week, frightened by a hailstorm, the runaway became trapped when she crawled into a basement of a house under construction at East 128th Avenue and Quebec Street. And that’s when a Thornton Animal Control officer was able to finally collar the stray.
“I’m absolutely shocked,” said Ariel’s owner, Kim Bare, who was contacted at her family’s farm in Mud Lake, Idaho, where she lives with other pets, including a male Great Dane.
Workers at the Adams County Animal Shelter were able to locate Bare by scanning information on a microchip embedded under Ariel’s skin.
“The last time I saw her, she looked like she was a skeleton,” she said.
Although Thornton had stopped pursuing the stray for fear of harming her, Bare never gave up hope, always updating her information in the pet registry when she moved.
Still, the dog’s long survival surprised experts.
“It is very unusual for a dog to be in this good shape after so long without veterinary care and without protection from the elements,” said Millie Beck, the shelter’s manager.
Bare, a software designer, had the chip put in Ariel when she adopted the then-1-year-old animal from a Great Dane rescue group. The dog, described as a bolter, acted the part when she escaped from Bare’s Thornton home. For months, Bare attempted to find her runaway but couldn’t lure her back and eventually moved from the Denver area.
And Saturday, after driving 14 hours from Idaho, she hopes to be reunited with Ariel at the shelter.
“I’m afraid of what will happen,” she said. So to ease the reunion, Bare plans to bring along some of Ariel’s favorite treats – Pupperoni pizza snacks. And a smile.
