MATTITUCK, NY — The North Fork community came together in a big way this week to bring a lost dog, Hercules, home safely.

According to Hercules’ owners Dani Foskey and Charmaine Freeman, the adorable pup went missing Saturday.

Speaking to Patch on Wednesday, Hercules was nestled close beside Foskey. On Saturday, Foskey said, Freeman’s son was a member of the Porters varsity basketball team who was headed upstate to play in the finals, so they all traveled for five hours for the big games.

They’d left Hercules with a sitter on Meday Ave. in Mattituck, and while upstate, they got the call that Hercules had gone missing.

“We were five hours away and there was nothing we could do,” Foskey said.

However, she said, Freeman grew up in Greenport, and they, along with Freeman’s son, have close friends in the community who sprang into action to help once they heard precious Hercules was missing.

Their friend and colleague Wendy Lechner, who works with Foskey and Freeman at San Simeon, posted the news that Hercules was missing on Facebook , and the post, within two hours, had been shared more than 900 times — a testament to the caring hearts on the North Fork who worked tirelessly to bring Hercules home.

“We were floored by the amount of help we had from the Greenport community,” Foskey said.

Freeman’s son Jahmeek also reached out to all his school friends, who also helped spread the word on social media.

“To see him so upset,” Foskey said. “First, to lose the game in triple overtime and then, to come home and your dog is lost.”

(Dani Foskey)

As soon as they got back from upstate Sunday at 11 a.m., they began searching, out frantically calling for their precious pup until 1 a.m.

“By the third day, we honestly were starting to lose hope,” Foskey said. “Hercules is a part of our family. There were a lot of emotions we were going through.”

Hercules has been with them since he was a puppy, she said.

They met dog tracker Teddy Henn, his dog Winston and their team at Long Island Lost Dog Search & Rescue. Henn went with the pair to the house where Hercules was last seen and let Winston smell his bed to get his scent.

By the fourth day, so distraught they were wearing the same clothes they had for many hours, they had been prepared to go see a psychic, Foskey said. “We just wanted closure. We couldn’t eat, sleep. We were out putting up flyers, doing everything everyone told us to do.”

But, as they were headed west to meet the psychic, a comment on Facebook said Hercules might have been spotted near Deer Drive. “We turned right around,” Foskey said.

Once at the location, they began knocking on doors. At one point, they came to a wooded area, and a fork in the dirt road. Foskey went right, and Freeman, left.

“She started calling his name and then, I heard Charmaine screaming at the top of her lungs. I didn’t know if she’d found his body,” Foskey said. “I didn’t know whether to run or stand there. But I took off running and then, I saw Charmaine walking down the path with Hercules in her arms.”

Her voice filled with tears of joy, Foskey described the moment when she saw her beloved dog again: “We both fell to the ground. Hercules was jumping all over us.”

Hercules, a Shih Tzu mix, is small, and he’d obviously endured a lot — he had a bloody nose, was covered in ticks, was limping, and had lost at least 5 lbs.

But in the greatest miracle of all, Hercules was alive. His indomitable spirit had seen him through.

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“I’m a workout addict and I used to take him with me to the track,” Foskey said. “I didn’t name him Hercules for no reason. He’s like a little warrior. And this just proved it to me.”

They took Hercules straight to the vet where he was given a bath, a haircut and antibiotics, she said.

Hercules, a gift from Foskey to Freeman on Valentine’s Day three years ago, means everything to their family.

Reflecting on the days when he was missing, Foskey said she had been wracked with fear, especially during the bitterly cold nights. Because they live in Greenport, Hercules knew nothing about Mattituck. And after hearing that someone might have seen him running toward Rt. 48, there was the terror that he might be hit by a car. “It was very emotional,” Foskey said.

The outpouring of love is something she and Freeman will remember forever, Foskey said. “Strangers came out of the woodwork, people I don’t even know,” she said. “We were overwhelmed. I can’t even explain in words, the feelings. We had strangers coming from upstate to help me look for my dog.”

(Dani Foskey)

Lechner said the response was amazing. “I cannot tell you how many people, including my parents, Linda and Henry Kozen, spent hours upon hours looking. Some made flyers, some hung flyers, so many shares and prayers. It was really nice. We are blessed to live in this community,” she said.

But after he was found, both Hercules and his family were “ecstatic, to say the least,” Lechner said. “They are beyond grateful to everyone for everything they’ve done. Whether you searched, hung flyers, made flyers, shared, prayed — whatever it is that you’ve done to help they are very grateful.”

Lechner thanked Missing Angels – Long Island, and Teddy Henn and Winston of Long Island Lost Dog Search and Rescue, an organization that relies on donations to do its invaluable work.

“I am beyond shocked and grateful for you stepping in,” she said to Henn and his team. “I know you guys are the best of the best so to know you were involved gave me complete faith. And a huge thank you to my parents who spent hours upon hours searching for little Mr. Hercules. Hercules had a lot of angels in his corner and that is why he’s now home with his family.”

Most of all, though, Lechner said it was the fierce search by his family that brought Hercules back into their loving arms. “I have never seem a family work so hard to get their baby back,” she said, with both Foskey and Freeman searching non-stop, taking time off from work, and “doing everything right. It’s very refreshing to see a family step up and work as hard as they did, to find their baby. Far too often, that doesn’t happen.”

In a message on Facebook, Freeman wrote: “I just want to say thanks to everyone that took the time to look for my dog Hercules. Some of you, I don’t even know — and you came out with a helping hand.”

Local volunteers also included Ginny McCaffery, “who was out there searching endlessly and even tried to check the firehouse camera footage,” Lechner said. Other volunteers included Danielle Ostrowski DePalma and her friend Rebecca, Sue Hallock from Mattituck who spent hours walking around Strawberry Field with her dog and a plastic bag filled with cut up hot dogs —as well as local businesses that helped by allowing flyers in their windows.

“There were many, many people looking for him,” Lechner said.

Describing Hercules, Foskey said he’s “the most energetic dog I know. He comes alive in summertime. He’s very smart and strong-willed.” And, she said, her dog had faith in his family. “He knows we always come back for him. He was just waiting for us to come back to him — to find him,” she said.

He was found about a block away from where he went missing, in a quiet, wooded spot — Hercules hates noise, Foskey said.

And once he was home, safe and sound, Foskey said, it was time to spoil their baby with a new leash, cage, sweaters, treats — and the rib bones he loves best. They took him to the beach, his favorite place, but because he’s lost so much weight, it will take time to get his strength back, Foskey said.

“I can’t even imagine what he’s been through,” she said.