Just as fast as Gavin Noyer found happiness with his new Shiba Inu puppy, he found despair when the puppy, Yaku, went missing.
Yaku disappeared Jan. 30 from his home in Steamboat Springs, just a month and a half after arriving at Noyer’s home.
“He was chasing a squirrel or cat or, I don’t know, something, but just like that he was gone,” Noyer said.
The next day, with Yaku still missing, the temperature in Steamboat Springs dropped into the single digits, with the wind chill below zero.
“He is basically my kid,” Noyer said. “I was out four or five days snowshoeing everywhere looking for him.”
On Thursday, 11 days later, a farmer who lives less than a quarter-mile from Noyer’s home was plowing his driveway when he spotted what looked like a fox huddled in some hay underneath his hay truck.
When the neighbor, who preferred not to be identified, saw the tags around Yaku’s neck, he realized it was not a fox and immediately took the 4-month-old puppy indoors while he contacted Noyer.
“He was pretty cold,” the neighbor said. “You could see his ribs and he was in pretty poor shape, but he wasn’t ill.”
Grace Hampton, a veterinary technician at the Pet Kare Clinic in Steamboat Springs, said Friday that Yaku “checked out just fine,” other than losing 3 1/2 pounds, or about a third of his weight.
“He’s a tough puppy,” Noyer said.
