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'He’s my velcro': Valley woman searching for missing dog after car crash in southern Utah

Andrea Tanzella says her dog went missing after she got into a crash on August 21. She has been in Utah searching for Beau ever since then.

TEMPE, Ariz. — A Tempe woman is proving that love knows no boundaries for man’s best friend.

She, along with friends and volunteers, are now on the search for her five-year-old silver Labrador retriever Beuaregard missing in the Southern Utah outback.

“We travel everywhere. We do Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and all of Arizona,” Andrea Tanzella said.

For five years she says every weekend the dynamic duo has hopped in her Toyota 4Runner for an adventure for the dynamic duo. August 21 was no different when they were in Garfield County.

Tanzella says the day started off as one of the best of her life.

“We went to the lake, hiked the falls. I remember even looking at him and telling him, this is the best day,” she said.

That night, she took a route she hadn’t planned for, trying to avoid the weather. She didn’t have a map as a guide.

From joy just hours before it would quickly become one of the worst moments.

She says she was trying to read a sign in the area near the road in Garfield County. When she turned her head for a second and crashed her 4Runner with Beauregard inside.

"The front of my car hit that embankment and then I did a head over, so my car was in the opposite direction I was going in upside down,” she said.

Andrea was not hurt, but she quickly turned her attention to getting Beauregard out of the wreckage.

"As soon as he got out, I saw him walk to the middle of the road and sat down I gave him a hug,” Tanzella said.

But not knowing where she was, she went back to the 4Runner to get a GPS tracker.

When she turned around Beauregard was gone.

She searched for hours hoping he would come back. Helicopters and medics were called in to check her out.

She thinks the helicopters may have scared Beau.

"I pulled the bed out of my 4Runner and slept across the street in the dirt hoping he would come back through the night,”

Hours have now turned into days, and now weeks.

Tanzella learned from specialists that Beau is likely still in the area, but in a feral state, traumatized from the crash.

"Calling for him could scare him off worse...because everything to him right now is a threat," she said.

In an effort to find him, she has installed game cameras in the area hoping for any sightings of him.

She’s also hung soaked rags in chicken broth, along with her clothes and a blanket the two have slept in, in hopes of luring him back.

Tanzella hopes with more people out this Labor Day weekend someone will spot him.

She warns people if they do spot him, to not chase him.

“With the current state that he’s in, he’s in fight or flight mode. If you see him, just sit in the road and throw some food at him to see if he will come to you.

Tanzella says the past few weeks with no signs of him have been tough.

“He never leaves my side. Everybody says he’s my velcro. He’s not Beauregard right now. He’s trying to survive and find out how to protect himself.”

Tanzella says the duo was supposed to head to Colorado for her birthday next week, but finding him is the only present she needs.”

He’s my kid. Without him, it just feels so empty in this house,” Tanzella says.

She says she’ll be in Utah as long as it takes to bring Beau home.

A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help in the search for Beauregard.

Tanzella says the money raised will go to reimbursing volunteers and friends who have used their own gas to help in the search.

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