Hanna Poscente took these selfie moments after she found Mia, who she had been looking for for weeks.
Courtesy of Hanna Pocente
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Courtesy of Hanna Pocente
Hanna Poscente took these selfie moments after she found Mia, who she had been looking for for weeks.
Courtesy of Hanna Pocente
For more than a month, countless animal lovers on a rough patch of western Colorado have been gripped by the same question: Where is Mia?
The shy 8-year-old rescue dog, with brown spots and soft ears, got lost in the winter cold.
Her owner, Charles Reigies, remembers the moment she disappeared, the day after Christmas. He and his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente, were driving home to Grand Junction on Interstate 70 during one of the first storms of the season. Reigis hit a patch of black ice, and they changed course. The Jeep overturned.
“And by the time I arrived, she was injured and the dog was gone,” he said.
It was dark, and they were miles from town, about two hours from home. An ambulance took Poscente to the hospital with a broken neck. As Reigis waits for a tow truck, he continues his search for Mia in the snow.
But there is no sign of her.
The next day, Poscente, now home, reactivated her Facebook account just to post about Mia. To seek help. She joins groups dedicated to lost and found pets throughout the region. Days passed. The post has been liked and shared. Strangers in small towns miles apart in frozen deserts, mountains and canyons continue to search for Mia and post daily updates online.
“They’re like their little village looking for Mia, a dog they’ve never seen before,” Poscente said.
And if that village had a mayor, it would be Janet Cross, who lives about 20 minutes from the crash site. She had heard that pets would keep coming back to where they lost their people. So, 10 days after the accident happened, she set up a surveillance camera at the site. She could see Mia still coming back twice a day.
“She’s looking over there. She’s looking for her family. She looks skinny,” Cross said. “Yes, it’s quite heartbreaking.”
It is also full of hope. Mia is alive.
Over the next few weeks, people called and texted Mia. And Charles and Hanna went back to check on the crash scene as often as they could. There were some times that were almost missed. One afternoon, they left at 5. The camera recorded Mia at 7 o’clock.
“You could say to her, ‘Wait, I smell them,'” Poscente said, smiling.
The fact that they lived two hours away from the incident only made things more difficult. Reigies, who found Mia at an animal shelter in 2018, constantly causes her grief.
“Just any day we come back empty-handed, it’s horrible,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mia’s story is still being shared continuously on Facebook. And animal control gave Cross a trap, which required her to check every hour. So she did just that, parking at a nearby gas station between checks.
Finding Mia has essentially become her full-time job.
“But I couldn’t give up,” Cross said. “I just can’t give her up.”
Mia’s owner, Charles Reigies, and his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente.
Stina Sieg / CPR News
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Stina Sieg / CPR News
Mia’s owner, Charles Reigies, and his girlfriend, Hanna Poscente.
Stina Sieg / CPR News
Then things got worse. A deer fence destroyed by a car accident has been rebuilt, and many of Mia’s online followers worry she has been trapped behind it. No one has seen Mia for eight days.
Finally, Poscente received a fateful call from a woman.
“I was looking at your dog,” she recalls her saying.
Mia is about 10 miles from where the couple crashed. A friend drove a Poscente, still in a splint, to the area.
That first night, Mia was scared. But they stayed at a nearby hotel, and the next morning, Poscente decided to give it another try. Her friend leaves for a teleconference, and Poscente starts walking down the train tracks as it snows. She looked up and to her left, and there Mia was, completely camouflaged in snow and sage.
Mia is not afraid. She didn’t run away. She yawned and started walking towards Poscente, who had filmed the moment with her cell phone.
“Hi baby, hi!” Poscente says in the video, her voice hoarse with emotion as Mia moves closer. “Oh my God.”
Then, the video cuts out because Mia starts jumping all over her. When they get home, Mia knocks Reigis off his feet.
“And as soon as I saw her in there, it was over,” he said. “Those were just tears.
Mia’s ribs are exposed, and her short white fur is filthy, but otherwise she is: a bit goofy and pretty quiet – unless she’s eating. And she has eaten a lot since she came back.
“She’s just a real sweet pup,” said Reigies, patting her belly.
With the help of many people, Mia made it home – after a month and a day.
