By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
After almost four days lost in the woods around Starrigavan, a young golden retriever was reunited with his family today. Finn, a yearling golden retriever service dog, was sore and exhausted but in good health and eager to take a nap on the sofa, owner Justin Mullenix said.
Mullenix had been searching for Finn around the end of Halibut Point Road every day since he went missing, and was getting ready to do it again this morning when he got a surprise.
“I was parked at the estuary,” Mullenix remembered, “and I just looked in my rear-view mirror and there he stood, just looking at me like, ‘Is it time to go?”’
Justin Mullenix sits next to his golden retriever named Finn as they watch a TV hunting show today at Mullenix’s Marine Street home. The dog spent four nights alone in the woods before being found. (Sentinel Photo)
While the dog was missing, Mullenix posted flyers in the area and put notices on social media, in the Sentinel and on KIFW’s Problem Corner.
A group camping at Starrigavan saw Finn on Tuesday, but couldn’t catch him.
“It was Tuesday morning, I was told that he was spotted at 8:30 and I got a phone call from people over at the campground staying at the cabin saying they had spotted him, but he ran by three items like a bolt of lightning and they couldn’t stop him,” Mullenix said.
Finn first went missing on Monday afternoon during a gun-training session at the shooting range at the end of Nelson Logging Road.
“I’ve been getting him used to gunfire for hunting, and we went to the range again and I fired off one clip or 15 rounds of my 9 millimeter (handgun) and he sat at a perfect heel,” Mullenix said. “We went through that iteration three times. Then as I was putting my stuff away at the little bench he gave a little whimper like, ‘I’ve got to go to the bathroom’... I turned around and he was gone.”
It wasn’t Finn’s first time around gunfire. Mullenix acquired the dog as a service animal and hunting companion, and had previously done gun training with him. So it wasn’t a new experience for him on Monday.
“Definitely not his first time (near gunfire). Honestly, I think it was some sort of smell of a deer or a bear. Something that spooked him or he caught a scent that he just had to follow, more so than the gunfire,” Mullenix said.
“The whole reason why I got him as a service dog is to help out with my condition – I have a sleep condition,” he said. “I tried calling deer before, last season,” he recalled. “And I fell asleep, woke up, and here comes a bear walking straight towards me, heard the deer call and wanted to get a free meal. And if I had woken up two minutes later I’d be a bear turd in the muskeg.”
The hours and days of fruitless searching were agonizing, he said.
“It’s heart wrenching, you know, you keep wondering all the different scenarios that might have played out and what’s going on with him,” he said. “Thank goodness there were a couple sightings, because I was thinking he went straight up over the hilltop and not near the road system... Thank goodness he stayed near the roads.”
After the dog went missing, Mullenix said, “I never came home. Through the whole time trying to find him, I lived out of my truck. I tried not sleeping, I tried to keep looking. The first night I didn’t sleep much at all. It was the third night my body was just shutting down... and I got three or four hours of sleep on that night.”
After returning home this morning, Mullenix said Finn was more interested in affection and rest than in food.
“He’s sore, like muscles and stuff, like he’s been working out too much. He’s got some sores around the neck area but, you know, they’re not bad at all,” he said. “He was just wet and when I got him home I gave him a huge bowl of food, and he only ate a little bit of it. He was more interested in getting loving from everybody in the house... We have a love seat and he gets on the seat right next to me. It’s the only chair in the house he’s allowed to get on and he was up there sleeping.”
Like many golden retrievers, Finn is a personable animal.
“Very loving... he’ll snake around your legs and he’s definitely a loving dog,” his owner said, adding, “He’s a patriot dog, kind of just one of those that everything about him fits in. He’s born on July 4 (2020). I served 21 years in the military, I’m still serving. I’ll be getting out here soon because of medical conditions but it’s cool to have my patriot dog,” he said.
Mullenix was grateful for the help of the community and the many volunteers who helped in the search.
“I just want to make sure to tell everyone who helped look and called his name and took time out of their day to help me, that I really appreciate it. I’m honored and appreciative of all their efforts to try to find him,” he said.
