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<\/p>\nScott Baker reunited with his service dog, Mal\u2019i, after a dayslong search in Jacksonville. Baker thanks the community for their help. <\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Navy veteran is reunited with his service dog after a dayslong, community-wide search in Jacksonville that ended in an emotional reunion.<\/p>\n
Scott Baker, a Navy veteran from Iowa, said he was \u201coverwhelmed with emotions\u201d after finding his dog, Mal\u2019i, who ran off following a hit-and-run near Atlantic Boulevard and Marketplace Drive last weekend.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI can\u2019t thank the Jacksonville community enough,\u201d Baker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baker said he refused to leave Jacksonville without Mal\u2019i, prompting a widespread search effort that quickly gained traction. Strangers shared flyers, sent tips and joined in looking for the missing dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a combined effort of everybody pitching in and helping out for this to be a happy ending,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019i was last seen.<\/p>\n
Armed with a remote connected to Mal\u2019i\u2019s collar, Baker began activating a beeping signal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could hear it, and that just gave me so much joy that she\u2019s here, she\u2019s somewhere around here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moments later, he spotted her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI shined the light and I saw her eyes, and that moment I said, \u2018There she is,\u2019\u201d Baker said. \u201cShe stood up and put her nose through the fence, she knew it was me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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After a full veterinary exam, Mal\u2019i 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.<\/p>\n
Baker credited the Jacksonville community for making the reunion possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Navy, we have this phrase: \u2018all hands on deck,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t just one person it was a team, a community, a village bringing us to this point, to this success.\u201d<\/p>\n