Scott Baker and his service dog Mal’i reunited after a dayslong search in Jacksonville, Florida.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Navy veteran was reunited with his service dog after a dayslong, community-wide search in Jacksonville, Florida.
Scott Baker, a Navy veteran from Iowa, said he was “overwhelmed with emotions” after finding his dog, Mal’i, who ran off following a hit-and-run near Atlantic Boulevard and Marketplace Drive last weekend.
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“I can’t thank the Jacksonville community enough,” Baker said.
Baker said he refused to leave Jacksonville without Mal’i, prompting a widespread search effort that quickly gained traction. Strangers shared flyers, sent tips and joined in looking for the missing dog.
“It was a combined effort of everybody pitching in and helping out for this to be a happy ending,” Baker said.
Just after midnight Thursday, Baker received a text from an anonymous tipster that included a photo pointing him to a wooded area in the Sutton Lakes neighborhood, just over a mile from where Mal’i was last seen.
Armed with a remote connected to Mal’i’s collar, Baker began activating a beeping signal.
“I could hear it, and that just gave me so much joy that she’s here, she’s somewhere around here,” he said.
Moments later, he spotted her.
“I shined the light and I saw her eyes, and that moment I said, ‘There she is,’” Baker said. “She stood up and put her nose through the fence, she knew it was me.”
After a full veterinary exam, Mal’i was found to have no broken bones and only minor injuries. Baker said she’s got some minor cuts and lacerations and that might be from the accident when she got hit.
Baker credited the Jacksonville community for making the reunion possible.
“In the Navy, we have this phrase: ‘all hands on deck,’” he said. “This wasn’t just one person it was a team, a community, a village bringing us to this point, to this success.”