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Lulu with the Kubacki family
Photo: James Poulson/AP
Lulu had been missing for three weeks - the Kubackis from Sitka, Alaska had already given up all hope of ever seeing their golden retriever alive again.
The bitch was too old and blind to boot.
»She means everything to us!«, the local newspaper »Daily Sitka Sentinel« quotes the owner Ted Kubacki as saying.
»I have five daughters between the ages of four and 13, they have spent every day of their lives with the dog.«
On June 18, Lulu ran away.
The Kubackis were beside themselves with worry.
"She's just so helpless, and we were sure that she couldn't have gotten very far because she can't see anything," Kubacki is quoted as saying.
After weeks of searching, the family had almost given up all hope.
But then word came from a few construction workers.
A raspberry bush at the bottom of an embankment had rustled suspiciously, so at first they thought it was a bear - but then it was the blind golden retriever.
Lulu lived!
But only just like that: she had lost almost a third of her weight at ten kilograms, she was dehydrated, dirty, her fur was matted.
“I thought she would jump up on me and wag her tail and lick my face—but she could barely lift her head,” says Ted Kubacki.
"She was really exhausted."
Slowly Lulu let himself be pampered again.
Soon she was able to eat again and raise her head.
The next day she was wagging her tail again.
And a day later she was able to stand on her own again.
The Kubackis were worried about the vet bills.
Ted Kubacki works in the supermarket, the whole family has to make a living from it.
But then their neighbors helped: Sitka residents raised hundreds of dollars to pay the bills.
"We have our family member back," says Kubacki happily.
mgo/AP
