Milwaukee's senior dogs were having a big night out!
The puppy, a 16-year-old Shih Tzu named Bear, is owned by Jenny Hazzard, who said her pet has always been adventurous, WITI reported.
“When he was younger, he was a runner,” she told the Milwaukee outlet.
On the night of January 24, Bear returned to his runner roots, disappearing from Hazard's backyard just as the sun was setting.
With the backyard gate open and the bear nowhere to be found, Hazard began frantically searching for the dog.
“After about 15 or 20 minutes, I was just in tears… because he was old and had heart disease,” Hazard recalled to WITI.
“He can't get far in the snow,” she remembers thinking.
Azar took to the streets to find his beloved bear and began a full-scale search on social media. Shortly after starting the search for the dog, Hazard noticed that Bear had briefly snuck into a local tavern.
“I got an email. It said, 'Your dog is coming to Finks,'” Hazzard told WITI of receiving a message that her missing pet was at a bar in Milwaukee. “I'm like, 'What?'
And sure enough, there he was.
The person who found Bear sent Hazzard's cell phone a photo of the smiling Shih Tzu relaxing with patrons at a bar a mile from Bear's home.
Pet parents remember feeling both relieved and confused because, in their own words, “What is this kid doing in a bar?”
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She later learned that a group of bar hoppers had apparently picked up the Shih Tzu from the street and brought it to the Finks stop.
“They took good care of him and I think he was quite popular,” Hazard said.
“Grandpa gets free and goes to the bar,” she joked about the pup, now safely home.
