There’s no denying that foster dogs often have been through incredibly tough moments in their lives, and sometimes, those moments can even occur after they’re rescued.

Seneca Krueger took in an adorable dog named Zelda almost a year ago.

She has a lot of experience working with rescued dogs. In fact, the woman has fostered almost three dozen dogs so far.

Her main goal is to provide all of the foster dogs with enough love and attention to make them learn how to trust people again.

These foster dogs were often rescued out of an abusive household or otherwise very dire circumstances.

Adapting to life at a new home can be quite challenging for the canines. Even though Seneca already had plenty of experience fostering dogs, Zelda was apparently one of her tougher cases so far.

The poor dog was constantly acting nervous and even had to take special medication for her mental state.

“She came with anti-anxiety medications. Zelda paced. All day long she was either pacing or hiding,” foster mom Seneca said to The Dodo.

Luckily, Zelda and Seneca definitely seemed to like each other, even though the dog did need some time to open up.

The pup was calmest whenever she was attached to a leash, and Seneca did her best to train her with a tether.

After two weeks, Zelda’s timid state of mind seemed to fade as she slowly started to feel happy and less anxious.

She didn’t even need her medication anymore.

“When I was home, she was attached to me,” foster mom recalls. “Over the course of two weeks of tether training, I had also weaned her off of her anti-anxiety medications, and the pacing had decreased. She was even willing to come out of hiding on her own for brief periods of time.”

Zelda started wagging her tail after just two months and even played around with the other family dogs.

One thing the dog still seemed to struggle with, however, was meeting visitors, strange people, or hearing unexpected noises.

After months of fostering her at home, Seneca thought that she did everything she could and that Zelda was confident, happy, and strong.

She believed it was time to find her a more permanent home.

“As Zelda began to gain a little more confidence, I decided it was time for her to find her forever home,” she said. “This is what you are supposed to do as a dog foster; help them adjust and then happily say goodbye as they go and live their best lives.”

Even though she knew that she wouldn’t be able to keep Zelda forever, saying goodbye was extremely hard.

“I had to pull over to the side of the road because I couldn’t see through my tears,” Seneca recalls. “For the first time in my 12 years of dog fostering, I felt like I had given away my dog.”

Ten days later, the woman received an extremely distressing call: Zelda had gone missing.

She somehow slipped through her leash and managed to run away.

Seneca didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately jumped in her car to help with the search and rescue. A search team was set up which was run by volunteers, who set up food in the area along with trail cameras.

Luckily, the cameras managed to capture her on tape, so the rescuers knew that she was out there somewhere.

As the temperatures started getting harsher, Seneca never stopped looking for her.

“The coldest days were the days I spent the most time searching because I was desperate to get Zelda warm and safe. [I] spent hours out in the freezing cold, following dog tracks through ravines, frozen swamps and fields.”

More than two months later, Zelda was spotted in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis was directly between Seneca’s home and her new permanent home, and it made her realize that the dog was probably trying to find her way back to her.

Zelda’s new owners surrendered the dog to the animal shelter again – at least, on paper. She still hadn’t been found.

Another two weeks pass, and Seneca receives word that Zelda has been seen in the neighborhood. Just like the previous time, she set up food stations and also put dirty laundry in the front yard, hoping that the smell would attract Zelda back home.

One day, a couple let Seneca know that they’d seen a dog that resembled Zelda. However, Seneca didn’t want to give herself false hope, especially after all this time.

“Although I really wanted this dog to be my Zelda, I knew that if there was a lost, scared dog out there on the streets, we had to help it,” she said. “Even if it wasn’t the dog that I knew and loved, and missed so much.”

The rescue dog was very nervous and Seneca didn’t think that she looked like Zelda that much, but a scan of the dog’s chip then surprised everyone.

The chip couldn’t lie: this was, in fact, Zelda.

The dog had run over forty miles to return to her foster mom.

“It was a miracle, and what else do you do in the face of a miracle? I sobbed,” she said. “I apologized to Zelda for not recognizing her. I touched her for the first time in 97 days. I assured her that she was going home forever and that I never stopped looking for her.”

Seneca decided to adopt Zelda permanently and give her the love and attention she deserves.

The pooch went through quite the struggle getting back home, but now she couldn’t be any happier!

“She has become my Velcro dog, and is never more than a few feet away from me at all times,” she said. “My other dogs are happy to have her back as well and groom her a lot.”

“I never could have imagined that the whole time I was searching for Zelda, she was searching for me, too. Zelda is officially my dog. But let’s be honest, it’s not like I had a choice. She is very persistent,” she concluded.

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Source: Wags & Whiskers, The Dodo