‘I've been teary and crying all day from happiness! My baby boy's okay!’: The heartwarming tale of the lost Australian Shepherd who was found in New Mexico a year after escaping a dog sitter to find his family who’d gone on vacation

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Dec 10, 2025 2:00 PM EST

You know what the one thing that the movie franchise Home Alone was missing? It was the kid leaving the home he had been ditched in to find his family on vacation. It would have added a whole new dynamic to the movie and maybe even allowed for a scene where the kid screams at his deadbeat family for leaving him behind…again. And while those movies do not have that pawfect piece to them, the story we have lined up today does.

As we dive into the tail of the doggo who could not handle his family leaving to go on vacation and so made a break for it from his doggy daycare and bolted. Somehow he knew they were going to New Mexico, but unfortunately by the time he got there, the family was already back home. But the rest of the story we will leave to you to read, but what we will say is that this pupper puts Home Alone to shame.

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  • 01
    I just really wanted to share this story because today has been an insane emotional rollercoaster, but I'm just so happy and
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    relieved! We got Brancy from a breeder who was looking for homes for two mini Australian
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    Shepherds. They were a bit older than puppies, as the breeder we got him from had in turn gotten them from their original
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    breeder, who'd had a family emergency right after the little was born and didn't have time to socialize them properly. As far as
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    we know, Brancy was never abused, but he was pretty skittish around people and took a long time to warm up to strangers.
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  • 06
    As we worked with him, he got a lot better! The first night I was home from school (he was my dog, but due to timing my parents
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    brought him home a month or two before I'd be home) we had to spend hours coaxing him back inside because he was so scared. By
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    the time we went on vacation last summer, after I'd had him for over a year, he was jumping and
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    dancing when I came home from work and would sleep in my bed. We made so much progress together and he was my sweetheart.
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  • Honestly, it is stories like this that make us think that every family ought to have a dog. It is experiences like this, where a family unit works together and supports each other while supporting the dog they all love, that deep and trusting connections are born. 

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    However, tragedy struck last summer while on vacation in New Mexico. My family and I wanted to take a day trip on
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  • And as we know, this is where the story gets tough, to say the least. Thankfully things do miraculously work out in the end, but for now we must let the tragedy take over our fairy tale like story. And you know what they say about fairy tales, they never end in the dark forest…

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    australian shepherd shop lying on a forest floor
    via Eudyptula via Adobe Stock

    Disclaimer: This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    a train, and thought it wouldn't be comfortable for poor Brancy to be stuck in his crate for the approximately 5+ hours we'd be
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    gone. Luckily, a friend we were camping with was also staying behind with her dogs, and offer to watch him so he wouldn't be
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    cooped up. We took the offer, went on the trip, came back... And he was gone. Turned out she'd left the dogs tied up
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    outside for awhile, and came back to find Brancy's leash chewed through (we never figured out if it was him or one of
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    her dogs) and he was gone. We stayed for almost an extra week looking, but even the one or two times we did spot
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    him, we couldn't get close; like I said, he's skittish and being an Aussie, he runs like a speeding bullet, you'd need to be on
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    horseback to keep up with him. Eventually, we had to move on, and I was heartbroken. We put up posters everywhere, posted
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    on the local garage sale Facebook group, and kept in contact with the local Humane Society, who were very supportive and
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    helpful throughout the whole ordeal. My parents even flew back out a few months later to try again, but no luck; he was just too fast, and too scared.
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    We kept getting the occasional call or message saying someone had seen him, but considering how fast and scared he was, without dog in hand it wasn't
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    worth spending all the money to fly out there just to chase him around for a few days and fly back. I was devastated, but had to accept that life moves on. I got a
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    new puppy (Bucky, a maltipoo) and while I loved/love him dearly, I still missed Brancy with all my heart. Until this morning. I
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    got a call from New Mexico, and, expecting another bittersweet "We've seen him, he's alive" message that would've at least told me he'd
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    continued to beat the odds and survive the harsh winter, I picked up. Imagine my shock and joy when I heard the woman on the other end say that she had
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    australian shepherd lying on a leafy forest floor
    via doda via Adobe Stock

    Disclaimer: This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 27
    Brancy in a trap in her barn, and that the Humane Society was coming to pick him up later today! I've been teary and crying all day from
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    happiness! My baby boy's okay! We've been communicating with the humane society, and according to them (and the pictures they've
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    sent!) he's mostly okay, just got some burrs and gunk in his fur and a bit shaken up. He's much less traumatized than I'd ever hoped for, he allows himself to be
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    handled, still likes to be pet, and is even following the woman fostering him around a little! (She sent us a picture of him peeking at her from around a corner,
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    which is exactly the kind of thing he used to do at home!) I know it'll be a long road to recovery, but honestly as long as he's with me again
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    I'm just so happy! My father and I are flying out there this Thursday to get him and bring him home, and I couldn't be happier! I'd just about lost hope of
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    ever seeing Brancy again, and now he's coming home!
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