Runaway dog returns home in answer to owners’ prayers

By Jean Cole
jean@athensnews-courier.com

May 09, 2008 09:04 pm

— Nobody knows why, but Haley Collins jumped ship at the Tanner intersection last Thursday and kept on running.
The 3-year-old boxer was riding in the bed of Dale Collins’ pickup about 9 a.m. as he approached the intersection of U.S. 31 and Browns Ferry Road.
“I was fixin’ to stop, and she just jumped out,” Dale said. “She ran toward the nursery. I stopped a gentleman who said she went the other direction.”
For two hours, Dale wandered the area searching and calling for Haley. No luck.
He telephoned his wife, Traci, a registered nurse at Athens-Limestone Hospital, who headed out to help search before she had to go to work.
One the way, Traci told her son, Logan, that his beloved dog was missing.
“He fell to pieces,” Traci said. “He was crying and crying, and I told him, ‘Just pray and God will hear you praying, and maybe she will come home some day.’”
But all Logan could think about was Haley’s absence.
She was one of his best buddies. Every day after school, before he did his homework, Logan went outside to play with two of the family’s dogs — Haley and another boxer named Ruby.
“I like to lay on the ground and let them get all over me,” said the fourth-grader at Athens Bible School.
Before nightfall, Dale searched the area again. No Haley.
On Friday morning, Traci looked again for the lost boxer and called the dog pound to report Haley missing. Her brother-in-law, Neal Flaherty of Athens, also searched for the dog Friday after work.
On Sunday, the Collinses looked again for Haley on their way home from church.
On Monday, Traci was busy at work when Twila, who worked 10-to-15 feet away in the finance department, stopped to speak to her.
Twila Fritze had no idea Traci had just lost a dog, but she knew Traci had a soft spot for animals, so she told her how a dog had walked into her yard at Houston Place near Tanner on Saturday. She had seen the dog Thursday, but thought it must belong to one of the construction workers laboring in the area.
“I was outside gardening and I saw her out of the corner of my eye,” Twila said. “I saw her go into the garage and, right away, I named her Leigh. I told her about 30 minutes later, ‘Little girl, it’s your lucky day.’”
Haley stayed in the house at Houston Place Saturday and Sunday, soaking up the love and, probably, wondering where her family was. Then Twila, who already had five dogs, took “Leigh” to the dog pound Monday because she figured someone must have been looking for her. She left her name and number in case no one claimed Haley.
“When I heard she found a dog, I just knew it was ours,” Traci said. “When she said it was a boxer, and a female and had a red collar, I knew it was mine.
Traci went to the pound Wednesday to pick up Haley. The Collinses had agreed to have Haley spayed, so she had to stay overnight Tuesday.
“On Tuesday, I went to see her to make sure it was her,” Traci said. “There she was in the pen. When she saw me, she started wagging her nub.”
“I grabbed her paw,” Logan said.
“When Twila found out it was my dog, she cried in my arms,” Traci said.
On Wednesday, Haley came home to Edgewood Road, back to the boy who played ball with her and chased her every day after school, back to the house with a Maltese named Scamp and a boxer buddy named Ruby.
“We just thing it’s a miracle — that God answered our prayers,” Traci said.

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