Only On CBS2: Army Veteran's Missing Dog Follows His Nose Home
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A dog from Westchester got scared by fireworks on the Fourth of July and ran off, but he made it home by following his nose.
Tango got lots of kisses from mom and dad after he returned to their New Rochelle home Tuesday morning, CBS2's Lisa Rozner reports.
Tim Tamburello and his 8-months-pregnant wife, Dinorah, spent five days tirelessly searching for him.
"Every day, we were putting out fliers," Tim Tamburello said.
Tim Tamburello is an FDNY firefighter and Army veteran who served in Iraq for a year. He says he found true comfort in his dog, a nearly 2-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.
Sheila Maher in Northport, Long Island, heard about their plight on social media and connected them with her neighbor Kelly Brach, a professional pet tracker.
Brach and her 3-year-old dog Enzo, a working dog, went to the Tamburellos' home Sunday morning.
"I've got Tango's blanket. [Enzo] smells it and then he looks for it," Brach said.
Enzo tracked Tango to a location more than three miles away, across railroad tracks and near a lake. He was hiding, so the family left a trail of items with their scent leading to their home.
"She said you want to hang it high, so it catches the wind and goes," Tim Tamburello said.
The scent trail worked. Tuesday morning, a neighbor found Tango on the front stoop.
"Sure enough, he was laying right there on the steps," Tim Tamburello said.
Tango was taken to the vet Tuesday morning. The doctor said he lost a few pounds and put him on some medications, but other than that, it will just take some time to heal from the experience.
His paws are also bruised, so he'll be resting a lot, but he'll be getting more love than ever before.
"He was so happy to see us, and the same thing, we were so happy to see him. It was unbelievable," Tim Tamburello said.
A happy ending that Brach says no words can explain.
Brach says she's seen it take as little as an hour to as long as a month to bring a dog home. It can cost a couple hundred dollars depending on the amount of work involved.
