Dog reunited with family 30 days after rollover crash

“Town Crier” newsletter – Briefs from the Region (2) – 3/17/20

On Feb. 2, Jesse Sonntag hit a patch of ice near Lame Deer that caused his car to fishtail, ultimately forcing a triple rollover before coming to a stop. While Sonntag blacked out for almost a minute, he was relatively uninjured. But he suffered a different type of loss, one all dog lovers can appreciate—his beloved pit bull terrier, Loksys, who had run off in fear following the accident, was missing. With the help of family and friends, Sonntag searched for nine hours in the sub-freezing temps, to no avail. Search efforts continued for three days, and over the following weeks left out his favorite toys and scented articles of clothing, hoping to lure him into the open. More than 30 days after the accident, a man living near the border of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations and who had seen missing posters called in to report good news: he’d found Loksys, malnourished, pierced with porcupine quills with a dislocated hip, but otherwise healthy. “(We felt) disbelief for so long, even for the first couple of days,” Sonntag told The Billings Gazette. “It was unreal.” Needless to say, the dog has some survivor in him, braving the desolate plains of southeastern Montana.