After Month-Long Search, Man Finds Missing Dog With Help From Mystery Fisherman

FREELAND (WWJ/AP) - A Saginaw County man has found his dog that was missing for more than a month after it was spotted by a fisherman inside an animal's muddy hole in the ground.

Jim Gallagher had last seen his Finnish Spitz named Captain in early August in the yard of their home north of Tittabawassee, according to The Saginaw News. He and his family searched for the dog and posted on social media but after 38 days without a sign of Captain, they stated giving up hope.

On Sept. 13, a fisherman told Gallagher's brother-in-law he had found a dog a short walk from the family's backyard. Gallagher says only Captain's nose and mouth were showing through an animal's hole that was next to a river. He got Captain out of another hole connected to that one.

The fisherman told the family he was going door to door at houses along the river and looking for the dog's owners, according to the newspaper. The fisherman left after alerting the family, and they don't know his identity.

"I want to thank him," Gallagher said, shedding a tear. "He doesn't know what this dog means to me."

The fisherman was in his 30s or 40s and was driving a black newer GMC pickup.

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