Boulder woman turns to community for help finding missing dog in Utah

On Oct. 5, Jessica Hendricks lost her best friend. While on a camping trip in the San Rafael Swell in Utah, her dog Kona was startled by fireworks and bolted into the woods.

The Boulder resident has now spent weeks in Utah searching for her furry companion. She has received help from a volunteer trapper out of Salt Lake City and a professional animal tracker from Wyoming who uses a drone and scent-tracking dog.

That has left Hendricks with a hefty bill for the search efforts. Eight days ago she set up a GoFundMe — gofundme.com/f/bring-kona-home-donate-for-search-efforts — that has raised $3,445 of its $4,000 goal as of Thursday.

“Your dogs are your family,” Hendricks said. “He’s the thing I care about the most in the world,”

Hendricks was given Kona in 2019 while serving in the Peace Corps in Tanzania.

“He showed up on a motorcycle and a cardboard box with some holes in it,” Hendricks said.

Seven months later the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world. Hendricks had to evacuate the country but refused to leave Kona. Because of the initial chaos caused by lockdowns, most airlines stopped allowing pets to fly in the undercarriage of aircraft. Hendricks got Kona out on the last flight to the United States that still permitted pets.

As each day goes by without any signs of Kona, the likelihood of finding him decreases. At one point a trapper was able to use a scent-tracking dog to follow Kona‘s scent. The trail ended though when they arrived at a riverbed that had seen flash flooding whip any scent away.

“Going into the third week without having any signs is tough,” Hendricks said.

But Hendricks has still not given up hope of finding her best friend, and she said there are still reasons to hold out hope.

“During this process, we also didn’t find any kill sites or see his Wonder Bread costume anywhere in the range, meaning he is likely still alive has found a good hiding spot from predators,” Hendricks wrote in her latest update on the GoFundMe page.

Since Hendricks is able to work remotely for her job she has spent most of her time in Utah searching.

When Hendricks launched the GoFundMe her roommate Floyd McCluhan immediately donated $40 to her efforts. McCluhan and Hendricks are active in the outdoors and Kona, who McCluhan refers to as Mr. K, is always there alongside them.

“He’s always keeping up on the trails, always having a good time out in Boulder and at home. He is just very calm, probably like the quietest dog you’ll ever meet in your life,” McCluhan said. “He never barks or yells or anything like that. Kind of like the perfect model of a dog.”