(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Thanks to high-tech drones, a dog that was lost for several days has been reunited with his family in northwest suburban Crystal Lake.
Charlie the Bernese mountain dog got out of his family's yard on Dec. 30, and his owners reached out to Kat Cavanaugh of Dog Gone Pet Recovery for help finding him.
Cavanaugh deployed a pair of drones with cameras and thermal sensors to look for Charlie.
“We have thermal technology on the drone and it senses the heat signature from anything – a person, a dog – anything that gives off a heat signature. And then there's also a 200 times zoom lens on the drone that you switch over to verify this is the dog you're looking for.”
Seven days after Charlie ran off, one of the drones spotted him in a wooded area near Huntley Road at Waterford Court not far from home.
Cavanaugh believes at some point Charlie was hit by a vehicle, because one of his legs was broken.
“He eventually did wind up hobbling over to the owners. He – we could see from the drone – he was badly hurt, so they rushed him to the emergency straight away, and I believe he's in recovery from the surgery. He's young, he's 2, so I think he'll recover well.”
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