For 16 days, an 8-year-old rough collie named Duke was missing near Osage, Minnesota. He had epilepsy, he had no access to the medication he takes twice a day, and he was alone in thick woods and swamp country.
His owner, Shawna Walters, refused to stop looking. On September 19, 2026, a thermal drone spotted him in a dry riverbed about 1.2 miles from home. He was thin, hurt and exhausted, but he was alive.
Here is how a family, a group of neighbors, a few strangers and some smart search technology brought Duke home.
Why Duke Means So Much to His Family
Duke wasn’t originally Shawna’s dog. He belonged to her father, a Vietnam veteran who served as a riverboat captain during the war, according to the Park Rapids Enterprise. Her dad named the collie after John Wayne.
Her father died in 2019, on Vietnam Veterans Day. Since then, Shawna and her mother have shared Duke between their two homes, which sit on the same dirt road. Duke became, in Shawna’s words, the strongest link the family still had to him.
Duke had a nightly routine. He walked Shawna’s mom home, made sure she got inside, and then went back to his own bed.
The Night Duke Disappeared
On September 3, Duke spent time at her mother’s place, which was normal for him. By 9:30 p.m. he still hadn’t come home, and he was nowhere to be found. Shawna said that was completely unlike him.
The family believes Duke had a bad seizure that left him confused, and he wandered off. His seizures are usually rare because he takes medication twice a day. Out in the wilderness he had none.
“Losing him felt like I was losing my dad all over again, and so I was like, ‘Nope. We’re not grieving. We’re searching,’” Shawna told the Park Rapids Enterprise.
A Community-Wide Search
Trail cameras and paw prints
About five or six days in, a neighbor remembered seeing Duke cross the road into a swamp on the night he vanished. Shawna and a friend pushed through the swamp and found a deer stand. She noticed a trail camera on it and held a missing-dog poster up to the lens.
Five minutes later, the property owner called her. He had a September 3 photo of Duke from another one of his cameras.
On September 13, another neighbor, Milena Schaefer, found paw prints along the Shell River. The two women had never met, but Schaefer had seen the poster. Shawna then set up her own trail cameras and searched the riverbed again and again, sometimes at 1 or 2 a.m.
Help from near and far
That kind of searching was hard on her. Shawna has spina bifida, which she links to her father’s Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. She kept walking anyway.
Help kept arriving. Two Twin Cities lost-pet groups, Retrievers Lost Pet Recovery and Lost K9, gave advice. A former manager at Headwaters Animal Shelter searched on horseback. Local law enforcement contacts spread the word, and Duke’s groomers joined the hunt. Shawna said a woman in North Carolina messaged her that she was praying for Duke every day.
“It was absolutely amazing to watch the community come together,” Shawna said.
Found in Eight Minutes by a Thermal Drone
The search finally turned when a supporter, Dani Peterson, arranged and paid for a thermal drone. On September 19, Bruce Rengo of Central Minnesota Drone Service in Baxter flew it along the riverbed. He had lowered his fee to help.
The drone found Duke within eight minutes. He was at the bottom of a 4-foot drop down to the riverbed, about 1.2 miles from home.
Shawna told the paper she cried quietly when she finally saw him.
What Duke Survived
Duke had lost 17 pounds. He had bite wounds on his neck and back end, chunks missing from the backs of his legs, and a large hot spot on his neck. Shawna said that, based on the puncture marks, the emergency vet thinks a wolf attacked him. The family’s fundraiser page describes the attacker as an unknown animal.
He was rushed to BluePearl in Golden Valley for emergency care. The first estimate was about $9,000. A revised plan to stabilize him came to $3,259, and an anonymous donor paid $3,200 of that bill in the middle of the night.
There was more hard news. According to the family’s GoFundMe page, Shawna’s mother fell and broke her hip on the same day Duke was found.
Duke’s Road to Recovery
Duke is now recovering at home under Shawna’s care, with help from Dr. Barb Isaacson’s team at Isaacson Veterinary Hospital in Park Rapids. Shawna, who managed a home healthcare business for about 11 years, turned her kitchen into his “sick bay.”
He is being treated for pancreatitis and will need surgery for a hernia. He is gaining weight, though, and he is expected to make a full recovery. Shawna takes him on daily walks to remind him he’s home and safe.
The family set up a GoFundMe for his vet bills. As of September 28, it had raised more than $3,000 toward a $4,500 goal, according to B105 Country.
Collies are known as loyal, gentle family dogs. If you’re thinking about bringing one home, we included the breed in our guide to family-friendly dog breeds in the USA.
Tips if your own dog goes missing
Every case is different, but these are the things that helped in Duke’s search:
- Make a clear poster and share it widely, both online and around your area.
- Ask neighbors and landowners to check trail cameras and doorbell cameras.
- Contact local lost-pet recovery groups. They often know what works.
- Look into a thermal drone search, especially in wooded or rural country.
- Tell local shelters, vets and law enforcement.
The Bottom Line
Duke’s story is a reminder of how much a dog can mean to a family, and how far a community will go for one. He survived 16 days in the wild without his seizure medication and a suspected wolf attack, and the people around him never gave up.
“Duke fought like hell to make it home, and now we’re going to fight just as hard to help him recover,” the family wrote on the fundraiser page.
Looking for more stories about kindness? Read this woman’s story of saving a burned baby and seeing him again decades later.
Sources
- Park Rapids Enterprise: “Missing for 16 days, dog is recovered in Osage” (Shannon Geisen, Sept. 28, 2026)
- Bring Me The News: “Dog that survived animal attack during 16 days in wilderness to reunite with family” (Sept. 24, 2026)
- B105 Country: “Minnesota Dog Survives 16 Days Lost in Woods Without Seizure Meds”
- InForum (syndicated Park Rapids Enterprise report)
- GoFundMe: “Help! 16 Days Missing, Duke the incredible Fighter” (family fundraiser)
Images on this page are illustrations created for this article. They are not photos of Duke.