Golden retriever’s unbelievable holiday getaway

Meet Milo Bear, a golden retriever from Nevada who survived 72 days in the mountains.

“We’re not just a family of people. We’re a family of people and pets,” says Nationwide member Will H.

Milo Bear is an important part of that equation: “He’s what completes our family,” Will adds.

For his part, Milo faithfully serves in his role as the family golden retriever. “He has a lot of very typical ‘golden retriever’ tendencies,” dog mom Christine H. says. “He’s always carrying something in his mouth and it’s often a sock. We now have a basket at the top of our stairs that is the ‘Basket of Lost Socks’ because they’re the ones that he’s stolen throughout the day.”

More than anything else, Milo loves hanging out with his family. Christine reports, “He is a homebody in a lot of ways, and he really likes to be around his people for sure.”

She continues, “I know people say this about their dogs all the time, but I think just the phrase ‘the bestest boy’ is so him. He’s the goodest boy, the bestest boy.”

The playful golden pup he is, Milo loves to run around in the snow. “One of his absolute favorite things in the world is to dive into the snow and roll around in it,” says Christine. Luckily, a close getaway for fun times is just a drive away into the mountains. But when a surprise fright sent him running, a joyful holiday outing turned into an incredible 72-day winter adventure (and earned this Hambone Award nomination).

What happened?

On Christmas Day, Milo enjoyed some holiday fun in Lake Tahoe. The road to the snowy trailhead was crowded with festive revelers, and as Milo’s leash was unclipped to hop in the car and head home, a sheriff’s deputy honked to manage traffic. Startled, Milo ran up a nearby cross-country skiing trail.

His whole family immediately rushed into the mountains to look for him, but Milo was nowhere to be found. “From that Christmas Day until just past New Year’s, when we all had to go back to work, we stayed overnight in our car so that we could create a scent trail,” Christine says.

Over the next several weeks, the family posted thousands of flyers and connected with a network of locals who helped support the effort. Christine says, “The search took a village, an entire village.”

Milo’s family continually darted back into the mountains to follow up on reported sightings, even snowshoeing through 20-foot-high drifts on Super Bowl weekend, but each time they returned home empty-handed.

“As the winter started winding down, we were at two months of him missing,” Christine remembers. Then, one day, they got a call. Milo’s microchip had been scanned at a shelter just one town over. It was a shocking return for everyone, Milo included.

“It was like he almost didn’t believe it either. You could see it in his eyes,” Will remembers. “We've said ‘a miracle’ a couple of times. I feel like I won the lottery that day.”

How Nationwide helped

Milo had lost a significant amount of weight, but against all odds had no scars, no cuts, no injuries. Still, the road to recovery was long and difficult. Throughout that healing process, Will and Christine could focus on Milo, because Nationwide was ready to help with their eligible veterinary expenses.

Christine says, “When we tell people that he was in the hospital for four days, and that we had to have prescription medication, prescription diet and all that … people have asked, ‘Well, how did you pay for all that?’ And we’ve shared that we feel lucky about it, but also that anybody can get pet insurance and it’s absolutely worth it.”

She adds, “I still look at him every single day and think what a miracle it is that he’s home with us and we get to cuddle him and love on him.”