Cam Bosson, an Athens, Georgia resident recently spent two weeks of what he says were the longest of his life, desperately searching Buford and Sugar Hill for his pit bull, Chewy. Cam dropped Chewy off at his brother’s house in Sugar Hill on October 4th, on his way out of town to Asheville. Before he could reach the South Carolina state line, Cam received a call that Chewy had escaped after his sister accidentally left the door ajar. Cam returned to Sugar Hill immediately, sadly Chewy did not. Flyers and social media posts started circulating and the community began joining together to help find the missing pet.
When I first spoke with Cam it had been eight days since Chewy had disappeared and I could hear the panic in his voice. At that time he had received possible sightings on Whitehead Road in Sugar Hill as well as both ends of Little Mill Road in Buford. Though by the time he would make it from one location to the next the dog would be gone. He said he was utterly exhausted but vowed to keep searching until he had exhausted every avenue. “That’s my boy, he helped me through a lot, I won’t stop looking until I have to,” Cam said as he further explained to me that he was a recovering opioid addict, “I wouldn’t have wanted to survive if not for my dogs,” Cam explained that Chewy was by his side and loved him unconditionally through the withdrawals and he couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.
For the next five days, Cam invested his search efforts into placing large pink and blue signs at the intersections of main roads, most including a large full-color photo of Chewy. This idea prompted by Lovy Myers, a pet recovery specialist, who Cam said reached out to share her experience and gave him direction on how to use signs properly to increase the success of pets being found. “She sent me in the right direction when I had no idea what direction to go next,” Cam claimed. When calls would come in about sightings, Cam would move into that area, “we tracked him with these signs,” Cam said. By focusing on smaller areas, it cut down the amount of time spent driving to each sighted location. When a call would come in, Cam explained that he would cover up the area with signs. If there were no further sightings within a period of time, he would move the signs to another area.
On October 17th, shortly after placing signs in the area near the Kroger in Sugar Hill, 4 calls came in and within minutes Chewy was found in the Emerald Lake subdivision.
“After 1,400 miles in my jeep and 13 days of tears, prayers, not eating or sleeping, my guy is finally home,” Cam shared on social media shortly after returning back to Athens with Chewy.
Cam reported that Chewy had lost 10 lbs, had multiple wounds, and was exhausted. He thought that was to be the extent of Chewy’s adventures. He found out otherwise this past Sunday when Chewy had to undergo emergency surgery to remove things that he had eaten from his stomach and intestines. Chewy got to go home on Tuesday, just in time for Halloween.
He told me that the most amazing thing about all of this was having support from the community, “Through this whole thing, people were praying, kids were looking for him, people were sharing and reaching out and letting me know that I wasn’t alone,” Cam said he doesn’t remember having that much support in anything, especially from strangers.
“To everybody that shared his posts (posts that were shared on Facebook in order to try and find Chewy), called to check up on me, or sent me links to check out or gave us your time to come look with us. Thank you.
