By: Lucas Chi

A family living in the town of Sitka, Alaska lost their dog and lost hope of finding it after a few weeks. When their dog, Lulu, was discovered by a construction crew after being in the wild for three weeks, they were filled with happiness.

At first, when the construction crew found her behind some salmonberry bushes, they mistook her for a bear, but then realized as they got closer that it was a dog. They immediately got her out of there. When the family received a call from the construction crew that their dog had been found, their sadness disappeared.

Ted Kubacki, the owner of the dog, said that “She means everything. I have five daughters, and they’re 4 to 13 years old, so they’ve spent every day of their life with that dog.” The Kubacki family had put a lot of effort into searching for Lulu. They searched for a long time, putting up signs, and looking in many different uncomfortable places.

“She’s just so helpless, and you kind of imagined that she can’t get real far because she can’t see,” Ted Kubacki also said.

Although many people felt sorry for them, one person decided to joke about it by texting them “Hi we found your dog” then saying “Just kidding” immediately after.

When Lulu was found, she had lost 23 pounds, was dehydrated, and her fur was dirty and tangled. “I just expected to come back and be like ‘Hey, here’s my dog.’ She’s going to jump up and wag her tail and kiss my face, and she couldn’t even pick up her head,” Kubacki said. “She’d been through the wringer.”

Her condition, however, improved quickly. And in no time, Lulu could stand up again. “Slowly but surely she started eating and she was kind of able to pick her head up,” Kubacki said. “But then yesterday, she propped herself up on her front paws by herself, like nestled into me and gave me a kiss and wagged her tail and it was just so great.”

The only problem the family had was paying off the veterinarian fees because Ted Kubacki supports his entire family by working at a grocery store. The rest of the community kindly offered hundreds of dollars to help them.

Sources: nbcnews.com apnews.com