It was the moment that had played out like a movie scene in Fielding Marshall’s head. Against all odds, he would find his beloved dog again.
The last time he had seen Gonker, a golden retriever mix, was more than two weeks ago when he had bolted off into the forest while they were hiking.
Since then, Fielding and his family had been on a race against time to find him – made even more desperate as the dog suffered from Addison’s disease and needed his next injection within 23 days, or he would die.
The frantic search, along the Appalachian Trail in the US state of West Virginia, involved a whole community and gripped people around the world.
And when, at the moment most had lost all hope, Gonker was found 15 days later and 111 miles away from where he’d gone missing, thousands shared in the Marshall family’s joy.
The story is now warming hearts in a Netflix film, Dog Gone, starring Rob Lowe, which has shot straight into the streamer’s global top 10.
Gonker’s owner Fielding – played by TikTok star Johnny Berchtold – says he’s thrilled millions are hearing the “family after-dinner story”, but admits the real life climax wasn’t exactly as he’d imagined.
He says: “I’d like to say I we saw each other across a field and ran towards each other in slow motion into each others arms,
"but what really happened was that he was happily eating out of the trash can, saw me, and brought a stick up to me to play catch, all matter-of-fact, like, ‘Oh, where’ve you been?’
“He was definitely happy to see me, but not as much as I was to see him. In a way it was typically Gonker, but still an incredible end to the story. He only had a few days left before he needed his medicine and it was deer-hunting season so he was in real danger, it made the fact he survived and came home even more amazing.”
Author Pauls Toutonghi, who wrote the book the film is based on, is married to Fielding’s sister Peyton.
He agrees: “There are many stories about pets that go missing and are later found, but this one was different.
“He was especially vulnerable, he was basically on the brink of death yet they found him just in time.
“And it’s the back story of the family that makes the story particularly poignant.”
He’s talking about the tragedy when Fielding’s baby daughter died during heart surgery in 1991 and he split with his girlfriend.
Shortly after, he adopted Gonker, an eight-week-old rescue dog. He quickly won over the Marshalls and brought Fielding out of his darkest moment with his playful, loving behaviour and often funny antics.
But they also found out he had Addison’s disease, an adrenal insufficiency.
By the time vets discovered the condition, the dog had fallen seriously ill.
“I remember going to the animal hospital and crying because there was a 50% chance he wasn’t going to make it,” Fielding recalls.
When, in October 1998, Fielding set off with Gonker and a friend, Noel, for a weekend of hiking along the Appalachian Trail near Catawba, North Carolina, it had been ten days since Gonker had his last injection.
Fielding remembers: “It was a beautiful fall weekend, all the leaves were changing colour. Gonker was loving it, running loops, chasing squirrels. We stopped for lunch in a grove of evergreens. Gonker was right next to me one moment, then the next he’d darted off after something and was gone.
“I wasn’t too worried, he’d wander off all the time and he’d turn up again, even after a few hours.
“Even as we set up our camp that night I was sure he’d come back during the night, I fell asleep, but the next morning he still wasn’t back.”
Fear gripped Fielding as he realised Gonker was lost, alone in the vast wilderness.
The two friends searched for the rest of the day, Fielding’s panic growing. Eventually, they decided to go back home to alert his family and because he was expected at work the next day.
“As soon as I got home the whole family got involved,” says Fielding. “It was a race against time. We knew he would die if he didn’t get his next injection, and we had 23 days.
“I worked for a few days, then managed to get time off. We printed out flyers, got friends and neighbours involved, and the local newspaper gave us more publicity. In fact the little newspapers in our area were the heroes of this story because they amplified the message. There were no cell phones or social media back then.”
While Fielding went back with his dad John to look for Gonker, his mum Ginny set up a command centre at home.
She contacted the police, animal shelters, stores, newspapers, radio stations, churches, park rangers and community centres.
When the story got picked up, it was published in newspapers all around the world, and people far and wide followed the search and sent in tips.
Fielding recalls: “My mother’s number was on all the articles and flyers so people were calling from all over the world.
“My dad and I walked the trail handing out photos, and called for him. My dad used an old-fashioned megaphone to go around calling Gonker’s name.”
Bu with every day that passed, the Marshalls’ hopes shrank. The family were so close to giving up the search, 15 days in, that when the family’s phone rang at 2am on October 25, Ginny almost didn’t answer.
It was a police officer, telling her that Gonker had been found eating from trash cans in Wintergreen, a ski resort 111 miles away from Catawba.
Fielding headed straight there, bringing Gonker back the same day for another emotional reunion with his family, and the euphoric write ups in their local newspapers, as well as around the country.
Gonker, who had even managed to gain a pound during his journey, lived for five more years afterwards, reaching the age of 11.
He will never be forgotten, says Fielding. “That megaphone we used to call for him displayed inside our house, there are photos of Gonker everywhere. It used to be the family story, but now the whole world knows how special he was.”
