Darlington residents help rescue missing dog

DARLINGTON — A 10-year-old dog who went missing in Darlington for a month and two days was found knocking on death’s door.

All involved are saying it is a miracle that Sofie, a skittish Australian shepherd mix, was found. Posters were plastered all over town asking people to look for the dog, who Omie McClary rescued from the Darlington County Humane Society.

Carolyn Powers and Mackie Baggett are friends of McClary’s. By chance they decided to take their dogs for a walk Oct. 25 down a path bordering Black Creek behind Darlington Country Club.

“We were about 10 minutes down the trail when our dogs suddenly veered over to the right,” Powers said. “They just sort of stood at a tree and looked at the bottom of it.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was Sofie nestled in the brush under the tree not saying a word. Our dogs didn’t say a word. I said to myself, ‘This is surreal, this is Sofie.’ We would have never seen her if the dogs hadn’t stopped.”

Sofie was tick infested and emaciated. She could hardly move.

Powers brought her to her house after calling McClary to say she’d found her. Sofie promptly inhaled two cans of dog food.

“When Omie came in and saw that it was really Sofie, she just went down on the floor and started crying,” Powers said. “She couldn’t believe she had been found.”

Sofie had been spayed and McClary was taking her to have her stitches out when she escaped. McClary stopped by some friends’ house to feed their cats before going to the veterinarian. She left the windows about half-way down because it was hot.

“When she came out of the house, Sofie wasn’t there,” Powers said. “Everybody started looking for her. We made signs and put them everywhere. Omie got calls saying Sofie had been seen at various locations.”

They even discovered the lady who had turned Sofie in to animal control while looking. She said Sofie showed up at her house and she fed her until she couldn’t afford to feed her any longer.

McClary just happened to be out at the humane society shelter when animal control brought Sofie in.

“Omie took her in because she knew she was a senior dog and they would probably have to end up putting her down,” Powers said. “She had heart worms and needed to be spayed.”

Sofie spent two days in an emergency animal hospital in Columbia after she was found.

“She had sticks, bones and leaves in her stomach,” McClary said. “They had to put her on 100 percent oxygen when I got her there.

“It was God’s miracle that she came back. This shows how compassionate the people of Darlington are. People kept calling me and telling me they were looking for Sofie and praying for her safe return. Sometimes they were in tears because they had such compassion for the suffering of the dog and for me.”

McClary originally had planned to be a foster mother to Sofie. She was going to try to find a home for her after she was spayed and had the heartworm treatments.

But things have changed.

“Sofie loves me and I love her,” McClary said as Sofie clung to her side. “She’s my miracle dog. You better believe I’m going to keep her after all we’ve been through. I’m not going to let her out of my sight.”