Her son’s service dog went missing. Then a mysterious man led her on a late-night hunt.

After a desperate search and a plea for community help, one Columbus family’s service animal has been found safe, thanks to a mysterious stranger who led the owner right to the dog’s whereabouts.

Bowser is an emotional support dog for Jacare Hogan’s 13-year-old son, Angelo, who has autism. Hogan is a retired staff sergeant from Fort Benning and suffers from seizures. Hogan also has a service dog named Carley. Both dogs are pit bulls.

“My dog is Bowser’s mother, and I’ve raised both of those dogs since they were puppies. They never go anywhere without each other,” Hogan said.

That’s what worried her when Bowser suddenly went missing from her yard in mid-August.

“They were barking, barking, barking, and they don’t do that. So when we saw he was missing, we went all up and down the whole neighborhood. I knew after the second day that somebody had taken my dog. I was terrified that they were going to breed or fight him, because he’s so big.”

After about a week with no luck, Hogan was worried sick, and her son was despondent.

“He attends the new Rainey-McCullers School, and every day he’d say ‘Did you find Bowser?’ and he’d just come home and cry and sleep. For him to come so far with his challenges with autism, and then for this to happen, was so disheartening to me,” Hogan said.

But then she got a mysterious message. The man wouldn’t tell her his name, or let her see his face. But he started asking her some questions.

“He asked if I’d had some work done at my house, and I said no, but there was some done two doors down. He asked if I recognized a gray truck, and I started wondering what this was about.”

Eventually, he told her that he knew where her dog was.

“He said, ‘Has your dog been gone since Saturday?’ And I said yes. And he said that he’d recognized it on TV, and a guy he knew had brought the dog over to his house. He still had the collar and tag, everything still on him.”

The man didn’t want to be involved, but told Hogan to meet him at a Circle K and follow him in her car. They drove to a house, and he rolled down his window, pointed to the yard and drove away. Right there, behind a gate, was Bowser.

“I called my dog and he jumped over the gate. He just looked at me and jumped right over the fence and into the car,” Hogan said.

She never confronted the person who had the dog, but she thinks he may have been taken for dogfighting. Bowser was exhausted when they got home, she said, and had cuts on his lip like he had been in fights. The vet said he was OK, but Hogan said she’s outraged and that she intends to ask police to investigate.

“My dog is not an outside dog, he’s an inside dog. People think that he’s this intimidating 100-pound bull, but he’s a service dog. People are bewildered that he’s so docile. It’s outrageous that people do this, all of these dogs have owners and families.”

Now she’s just happy that Bowser is home — and so is Angelo.

“He was running around, playing with him in the yard, he had him sleeping on his bed, which they usually don’t do,” Hogan said. “He was just overjoyed.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Her son’s service dog went missing. Then a mysterious man led her on a late-night hunt.."