Charlie, the Crystal Lake missing dog found by drone, is back at home recovering

After being lost for a week, getting hit by a car and then being found using heat-sensing technology, Charlie the Bernese mountain dog is back at home and resting.

“He came home [Tuesday] afternoon,” Charlie’s pet parent, Kate Belmonte of Crystal Lake, said Wednesday. “He is doing OK and is on a lot of medication.”

[ Photos: Drone used to local missing dog Charlie ]

After deciding, for unknown dog reasons, not to come back inside after getting let out the morning of Dec. 30, Charlie went missing and at some point was hit by a car, breaking the dog’s femur. He was found Sunday thanks to the skills of Mike Smith of SmithicAir and Kat Cavanaugh of Dog Gone Pet Recovery. They used their thermal heat-sensing drones to find Charlie in a wooded area near his home.

Charlie had surgery Monday to put plates in and set his broken back leg. He isn’t moving on his own yet and instead is fitted with a harness “to carry him around,” including to take him outside, Belmonte said.

At 82 pounds, getting Charlie out the door is a project, but he’s been telling them when he needs to go out.

“He shows us by trying to get up,” she said.

Belmonte and her fiancé have two other dogs who are now staying with family while Charlie heals.

“He and our French bulldog are the best friends ever, always wrestling and playing,” Belmonte said.

But when Charlie came home from the veterinarian, he wasn’t interested in the play they were used to.

“He was making warning growls at him,” Belmonte said.

“Everywhere we have gone, people know about Charlie.”

—  Kate Belmonte of Crystal Lake

Charlie’s recovery – including putting weight on that broken leg – could be six to eight weeks, the family was told.

“We set up a little bed for him by the couch in the living room,” Belmonte said, adding that they are now sleeping on the couch to be close to him overnight.

Charlie’s rescue became a Chicago-area media sensation, with all of the major broadcast TV news stations covering the story of how he was found.

“Everywhere we have gone, people know about Charlie,” Belmonte said.

Other than the broken leg, Charlie was in fair condition when he was found after seven days.

“When we took him to the vet, he wasn’t too underweight,” Belmonte said, adding that it was likely he found something to eat in the wooded area he hunkered down in with his injury.

The spot where they found him was just a few blocks from the house. That made sense to Smith, of Bartlett-based SmithicAir, who found Charlie using the heat-sensing drone. Smith decided to search in wooded areas near the home and near where Charlie was last seen.

“It felt like a place a dog could hang out,” Smith said.

Dogs that run tend to stay closer to home, he added.

“Dogs really don’t run for more than a mile away,” Smith said.