What was supposed to be a fairly simple visit to the vet turned into a four-day ordeal for a Burlington dog and his owners. But thanks to many members of the Powell community, it ended with the pup reunited with his family.

Ray Cauffman is offering his thanks to everyone who helped look for Max after the dog went missing in rural Powell.

“This is really a true blessing. It really is,” Cauffman said last week.

Max had arrived at Powell Veterinary Services on Monday, Jan. 30 as planned, but as a family member got him out of the vehicle, the 1 1/2-year-old slipped his collar and bolted. The border collie was soon out of sight.

“He’s extremely fast,” Cauffman said. “That’s part of the problem.”

Cauffman and a half-dozen friends searched the area south of Powell, but came up empty. Meanwhile, the temperatures were at dangerous levels: The high for Jan. 30 was minus 3 degrees and plummeted to as low as negative 20 as night fell. The next day wasn’t much better.

“I didn’t think I was going to get him back, honestly,” Cauffman said.

But dogs, he noted, can be pretty resilient — and the Cauffman family received assistance from many people. Staff at Powell Veterinary Services, at the City of Powell/Moyer Animal Shelter and local law enforcement all kept a lookout. Meanwhile, Cauffman’s daughter, Cassie Riel of Powell, turned to social media, posting a call for help on her own Facebook page and several local Facebook groups, including Lost Pets Powell, Wy. Sightings and potential sightings of Max soon began coming in, which Riel relayed to her appreciative father.

Cauffman didn’t have particularly high expectations for the Facebook outreach and was surprised when a couple hundred people shared the post with their friends and colleagues.

“I was thinking, you know, four or five people that were pretty much close to me and maybe we might get a response from one or two [others],” Cauffman said, “but I had no concept that there would be that many people involved in looking for him or trying to help us find him.”

Despite all the help, Tuesday and Wednesday passed with Max still out there … somewhere … on his own. According to the eyewitness accounts shared with Cauffman, the dog made it as far as 4 miles from the vet clinic, roving a broad area south of town.

But their fortunes turned on Thursday, when one of Cauffman’s longtime friends, Del Ray “Paco” Jones, found Max on Lane 10, a couple miles outside of town. Cauffman was in the area and hurried to the scene.

Meanwhile, the skittish Max continued racing across the countryside, but Cauffman showed dogged determination, pursuing his pup on foot.

“I ran about a quarter-mile across the open field,” Cauffman said. “And man, as soon as he saw me and heard me, he was pretty happy to see me.”

Max raced to Cauffman “like a bullet,” jumped into his arms and licked his face.

“I’m thinking he was a happy camper,” Cauffman said.

Still, the owner wasn’t about to take any chances.

“I picked him up and packed him all the way back to the pickup,” Cauffman said — another quarter-mile trek that left him “pretty gassed.”

But it was a successful mission. Jones captured the moment on camera, of Max cradled in his owner’s arms. Riel shared the photo on Facebook with the good news of Max’s return and her family’s appreciation.

“I just wanted to put out my gratitude to the entire Powell community,” Cauffman said.