Missing greyhound reunited with Kansas family after two years
After spending more than two years living behind an Arkansas City Walmart — surviving off of scraps and scared of the people who tried to help her — a Kansas dog has been reunited with her family.
The Arkansas City Police Department credited the successful rescue of Wade — the shy, stray greyhound — to one of its newest animal control officers, Erica Petry, who took on the task of befriending the hound until she was able to capture and reunite her with her family.
Petry came across Wade early into her new career with the Arkansas City Police Department. According to a written statement by the department, the call began like many others — a report of a stray dog near the Walmart.
Store employees, who had tossed the stray dog scraps of food, said she had been roaming the area for the past several months.
“She was super scared of getting close to people,” Petry said in the news release. “She would come pretty close, because the vendors and employees would toss her scraps, but she always stayed just far enough away so you couldn’t actually grab her.”
Petry patiently tried to win Wade over with food and treats, but was unable to catch the skittish hound. In the news release, Petry noted that Wade was incredibly smart — sometimes, when Petry put food out for Wade, the dog would wait until Petry would receive another call before helping herself to a private free meal.
Unsure what to do next, Petry teamed up with Beauties and Beasts Inc., a volunteer-led animal rescue group, to determine the best kind of trap to use to capture Wade.
But even with an array of traps at their disposal, they still found Wade difficult to catch.
“She was so smart,” Petry said in the release. “Every time we thought we had her, she figured out a way not to get caught.”
Eventually, Petry and two Beauties and Beasts volunteers were able to trap Wade. Early on Sept. 5, Petry and the volunteers camped out — two crouched under a semi-trailer while another watched through binoculars from a nearby hill — and successfully caught Wade as she stepped into the open-panel pen trap.
“It was surreal,” Petry said in the release. “When I finally slipped a leash on her, I could breathe again.”
Petry was able to reunite Wade with her family that same day. They had purchased her from Texas two years prior as a hunting dog but only days after adopting her, Wade slipped her leash while on a hunt and disappeared.
Now, the statement said, Wade is living as a house pet with plenty of siblings and a loving family with plenty of patience.
Petry, meanwhile, has returned to her usual calls with the police department. And while she said coming to work afterward without making her routine stop at Walmart to win over Wade has been “weird,” she’s glad Wade survived it all and is now where she belongs — at home with her family.
“She’s a lucky girl,” Petry said in the release. “To survive two winters on her own, and to finally get back to her family — it’s pretty amazing.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2025 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Missing greyhound reunited with Kansas family after two years."
