By Elizabeth Farrington
TINTON FALLS – Daisy, the 1-year-old Chihuahua who slipped out of a house and went missing for five days, was reunited with her owner last Friday night.
Beth Lane of Tinton Falls was watching for her beloved pet on the evening of April 18, sitting outside at Capelli Sports Complex, when the best thing happened – Daisy appeared, seemed to recognize her, sniffed her hand, then jumped into her arms.
“I would like to hit the lottery, but I feel like I did hit the lottery already. This is my lottery,” Lane told The Two River Times Tuesday.
The search for Daisy began Sunday night, April 13, shortly after she escaped from one of Lane’s friends’ homes. The community of Park Place quickly banded together to search for Daisy but couldn’t catch her. The tragic news was shared with Lane while she was on her way home from a funeral, leading her to call the Tinton Falls Police and inform them of the situation.
After an hour of searching, “which feels like forever when you’re looking for your dog,” Lane said, she received a return call from the Tinton Falls Police saying that a Monmouth County Sheriff’s officer spotted Daisy running along the fence line of Naval Weapons Station Earle on Shafto Road in the borough, where she used an eroded part of ground to crawl under the fence and enter the naval base.
After a night of searching and only an hour and a half of sleep, the dedicated dog owner decided to search for Daisy again in the morning.
The next day, Lane put up “lost dog” signs all around Monmouth County and posted Daisy’s predicament on social media with the hopes that someone would find her beloved dog.
Mike Flynn, an animal control officer from the Monmouth County SPCA, placed humane traps along the fence line. John Martinez of Tri-Borough Lost Dog Trackers Search and Rescue gave Lane dos and don’ts and other strategies to help find Daisy. Bill Addison, the public affairs specialist from Naval Weapons Station Earle, offered advice and help since Lane was limited to searching outside the base’s perimeter.
“I learned a lot from all this about dog behavior,” said Lane. “When your dog gets out, they run away if you’re going to chase them.” She also discovered that, when dogs are lost, they turn to their “animal instincts” and go into survival mode, leading them to see “everything as a threat,” sometimes including their owner, Lane said.
Desperate after five days, Lane ventured over to the fence line on Friday with a rotisserie chicken, some bone broth, her T-shirts and Daisy’s blankets in an attempt to lure the Chihuahua with some familiar scents. Suddenly, Lane heard barking. She turned around and saw Daisy on the other side of the fence, but moved too quickly, causing the dog to run in the opposite direction.
“She didn’t recognize me,” Lane said. The growing distance between her and Daisy made Lane feel “desperate and… helpless.”
Later that day, while Lane and a friend sat on the soccer field trying to relax amid the stressful circumstances, they again heard barking. The two women looked to their right and spotted Daisy. They stayed still and this time Daisy approached Lane, sniffed her hand and recognized her owner. Daisy then jumped into Lane’s arms, and the two were reunited.
With a combined community effort across Monmouth County, Daisy was able to return home safely.
“We all love dogs here,” Addison said. “So a lot of folks kind of took it to heart to make sure that they were keeping an eye out for Daisy.”
“We’re just really happy that she’s back home with her mom and safe,” he added.
As for Daisy, Lane said her pet seems quite content to get back to her comfy indoor life. While Daisy can’t talk about her experiences in the wild, “she seems to know a lot more than she did before,” Lane mused.
The article originally appeared in the April 24 – 30, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
