Sissy the schnauzer left her home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Saturday, and went in search of her owner Nancy Franck. The search took the brave little dog 20 blocks from Washington Avenue to Mercy Hospital Center. Sissy’s owner, Nancy, had been at the hospital for two weeks recovering after a surgery for ovarian cancer.
Members of the family soon noticed that Sissy was missing from home. They were puzzled and worried because the dog had never run away from home before.
Surveillance cameras captured the moment that Sissy walked into the hospital, trotting casually through two sets of automatic doors into the reception area. She was unable to reach her owner in her hospital room only because she did not know how to take a lift on her own.
And nobody has been able to explain how the little dog found her way to the hospital where her owner was staying. According to members of the family, Sissy had never been taken to the hospital and there was no way she could have known that her owner was staying at the hospital.
Nancy’s husband, Dale Franck, said that Sissy had been acting strange since Nancy left home and that it was obvious she was missing her owner. Apparently, the little dog finally made up her mind she couldn’t remain separated from her beloved owner and set out on a journey to be reunited with her.
Security officers said they found a dog wandering in the hospital corridors with her nose close to the floor. Sissy was apparently trying to sniff out her owner. They picked up the dog and looked at her tag for information about her owner.
Then they called Mrs. Franck’s husband, Dale, and told him they had his dog. Dale was astounded to learn that the dog was 20 blocks away at the hospital where her owner was staying. Sissy had been missing from home only four hours when Dale received a call from hospital officials that they had found her.
Dale said, “I thought she just wanted to go someplace, but I didn’t know where and she had never run away before. She wanted to go see her mum. She was on a mission but she couldn’t find the right elevator to take.”
Samantha Conrad, chief of security at Mercy Hospital, told KCRG, “We looked up and there was this dog that was just running across the lobby. We started looking at the tags and it had the address and we saw how far away this dog had lived, as far as going at least fifteen blocks to get here. So it was quite an amazing journey that this dog made.”
Nancy’s daughter, Sarah wood, went to the hospital to meet Sissy, and before she took the little dog back home, she took her to see her owner Nancy.
Nancy said she asked Sarah, “‘Did you sneak this dog in here?’ She [Sarah] said ‘no, she sneaked herself in here, mom.'”
But Nancy was happy to learn that her beloved dog Sissy was safe after attempting a perilous journey alone.
She said, “I don’t know how she found the right door or did any of that herself. That was great just being able to see her. That was perfect. I’m glad she thought of it.”
Nancy’s daughter, Sarah, said, “She missed mom. That’s all I can say. She missed mom and she knew to come and see mom.”
It remains a puzzle how the dog was able to find her way to the hospital. Dogs have an extraordinary sense of smell and they are able to track people by smell over considerable distances. But explaining how she was able to track her owner becomes more difficult if, as likely, Nancy had been transported to the hospital in a car. A dog would find it difficult to track even a familiar scent riding a car two weeks after.
But a possible clue is that Nancy works at the Hall Perrine Center next door to the hospital. Although Sissy had never visited the place, she had been in the car a few times in the past when Nancy was being dropped off at her place of work.
