She thought she’d lost everything after a car crash killed her cat and her dog disappeared — then a week later, a phone call changed everything

The dog owner from Indiana was driving with her boyfriend on a highway when a semi-truck crashed into them.

PUBLISHED 9 HOURS AGO

(L) Paramedics providing first aid to injured woman, (R) The poster of the missing dog. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L) simonkr, (R) StockSeller_ukr)

A woman thought she had lost everything after a devastating car crash. It proved fatal for her cat, while her dog was nowhere to be found following the accident on October 24, 2025. The owner, Amanda Lohr of Kokomo, Indiana, was driving with her boyfriend on a highway to Portland, Oregon, when the incident took place, leaving them with severe injuries and permanent loss. As weeks passed by, hopes of finding her dog alive dwindled until one phone call changed her life.

A woman with her pet dog in the car. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | bymuratdeniz)

The 33-year-old dog owner said she was heading to a friend’s home in her 2005 Buick Century on the I-80 when a semi-truck crashed into them at around 6:30 p.m. The impact sent their car tumbling into a ditch, she told Cowboy State Daily. The couple was severely injured. Lohr was taken to the hospital by ambulance while her boyfriend, who suffered from a broken neck, was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Casper. Their cat was badly injured and had no choice but to be euthanized. Their pet Dachshund, Chewie, was ejected during the accident, and the owners feared that he was later killed by a passing car. There was no way he could have survived the Wyoming wilderness alone.

A car after a road accident. Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Peter Dazeley — A car after a road accident. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Peter Dazeley)

A few days later, parents Scott and Kodi Allred, both 49, were driving to visit their son in Colorado. He was studying at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. At around 11 a.m., the couple spotted a black wiener dog running alongside the I-80 highway near Elk Mountain. Stunned to see a loose dog with no owner around, they stopped to investigate. Scott figured the dog was lost and tried to catch him to return him to safety. “The little guy was terrified, and I couldn’t get close to him. I tried to call him to me, but he ran off, and I began chasing after him. I tried to cut him off so that he wouldn’t run into the road,” he told the outlet.

Scared dog sitting alone in forest. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images| Photo by Wirestock)

Scared dog sitting alone in forest. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Wirestock)

A brief chase ensued. The Allreds tried to capture the dog, but it was more challenging than it seemed. After a while, the small dog was exhausted, which allowed the couple to get hold of him and secure him with a leash. Chewie was taken to the nearest humane society in Laramie, where a vet scanned for a microchip and found the owner’s contact information. “I was really happy because I had been mourning for more than a week,” expressed Lohr. However, it was barely the end of Chewie’s journey back home. While he was safe, sending the dog back home to Portland was no small feat.

A sad pet owner with her dog. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Solovyova)

A FedEx driver who had also spotted Chewie on the highway earlier made arrangements for his ride back home when he learned about the heartbreaking rescue. Kenny Coomes, a long-haul trucker, had set up a live trap with food and blankets for the dog, but presumed Chewie was probably killed in the wilderness. He was amazed by the dog’s survival skills and contacted a fellow driver to deliver the dog to his owner in Portland. “It was God who put everything in place so this could happen,” he said during a phone interview.