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Maine woman searches for lost dog from more than 5,000 miles away

The Great Pyrenees named Guapa gets spooked while at a groomer, runs away, and her owner believes she is trying to find her way home to Kennebunkport.
The 90-pound Great Pyrenees mix ran away from a groomer in Kennebunk on July 20 and her owner has been searching for her owner believes she is trying to find her way home.

KENNEBUNKPORT (NEWS CENTER Maine) — In a rare twist of bad luck, the day a Maine woman returned home to check on her dog after being apart for a year, it ran away.

Erin Campbell of Kennebunkport has spent the last year with her husband and children working and studying in Chile. Someone living in their home has been taking care of the family's Great Pyrenees, named Guapa.

Campbell has had the 9-year-old Great Pyrenees since she was a puppy.

The day Campbell arrived home was the same day her pet of nine years was lost from a groomer in Kennebunk.

Campbell's husband had taken the tan-coated dog to a new groomer and was picking up Erin at Logan International Airport when she got the call that Guapa had run away.

Campbell would later learn that Guapa had run through an open door and been chased by staff who couldn't catch her.

Campbell is not the only one worried about her dog; her daughter Eliza (pictured above) and Allie, along with her son's Paul and John have been praying to find their beloved pet.

"Guapa has never run away before," said Campbell. "She just gets nervous with strangers."

The 90-pound dog went missing on July 20, and Campbell believes she is trying to find her way home, but because she ran away from a place with which she was unfamiliar, Campbell believes Guapa is disoriented.

For three weeks, Campbell hiked more than 100 miles in Kennebunk and Wells searching for signs of her dog, using three different stranger sightings of her pet as a guide.

She worked with Maine Lost Dog Recovery to get the word out about Guapa and to get ideas on how to better trace her.

Campbell spotted tracks she assumes were her pet's in remote places on the Blueberry Planes of Kennebunk and on the Wells Barren Preserve, near where she was spotted. She left food and clothes out for Guapa hoping to find her but to no avail.

Finally, Campbell, who extended her trip to search every day for her dog, said she had to return to her family in Chile. Campbell says she is now relying on the help of Mainers to find her beloved pet that she believes is just trying to make her way home.

Guapa has a thick tan coat and dark eyes. She is wearing tags. If you spot Guapa, you are asked not to chase the dog but call or text Campbell at (508) 505-6176, or her husband Pat at 508-505-6176 or her daughter Allie at 508-505-6325.

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