Lynnea Petersen thought she was in trouble.
When she got home from work on Monday, she read a note that Eagan animal-control officer Bob Kent had taped to her window asking her to call. She thought her dog Kayzee had somehow gotten out and was picked up.
“I feared the worst,” she said.
But it was just the opposite. Kent wanted to share news that they both consider remarkable: He had snared her other dog, Terra June, who disappeared six months ago and apparently had been living in a wooded area about three miles from her Inver Grove Heights home.
Within the hour, Terra June and Petersen were reunited at Pilot Knob Animal Clinic, where Kent had taken the 3-year-old Keeshond to get checked.
“I really didn’t think this was all true until I actually saw her,” Petersen said.
But she couldn’t embrace Terra June because the dog’s fur was matted with lots of burrs, and she didn’t want to hurt her.
It took the dog a second or two to remember Petersen’s scent. Then, it was kissing time.
“She was licking me in the face, which I normally don’t allow,” she said.
Terra June got spooked by a loud noise March 29 and took off from her home near Cliff Road and South Robert Trail.
“My husband tried to catch her and there was no way,” Petersen said. “She was gone.”
Petersen spent a week walking the area, calling the dog’s name and putting up posters. Terra June has a microchip, so Petersen called the company and reported the dog missing.
But as the days passed, Petersen’s hopes of finding Terra June waned. “Maybe someone took her in,” she told herself several times.
Petersen found herself looking out her window at her yard, hoping she’d see the dog.
“I didn’t want to think of her being dead,” she said.
Thanks to Kent, she never had to. In early April, he started receiving reports of a loose dog near Diffley Road and South Robert Trail. Some homeowners were unsure what they had seen, thinking the animal could be one of the raccoons or coyotes that have been populating the area in increasing numbers.
A few weeks ago, some homeowners reported a small dog running in and out of a wooded area. One resident said he had been throwing food to the dog once in a while; construction workers apparently had been feeding it, too.
On Monday afternoon, Kent set a live trap with dog food in the back yard of a home. He didn’t have to wait long: Terra June was caught within two hours.
“I knew right away this was the ghost I’ve been chasing,” Kent said.
Before picking up her dog, Petersen stopped at Eagan City Hall and paid a $40 fine for stray dog and no collar.
“Small price to pay,” she said.
Other than contracting stomach worms, weighing 18 pounds less and getting a shaved haircut, Terra June is back to her old self, Petersen said.
The dog also seems tougher — she doesn’t get startled and run as easily — and is friendlier to strangers, letting them pet her, Petersen said.
“It’s all just hard to believe,” she said. “I still have to look and say, ‘She’s home.’ ”