CAÑON CITY, Colo. (KDVR) — The family of Farrah, a 3-year-old golden retriever, were relieved when they received the phone call that their dog had been found after months in the wild.

“The fact that she survived on her own in the Colorado wilderness is epic,” Taylor Salazar, Farrah’s owner, said.

Back on June 21, Farrah was riding with her human grandpa, Taylor’s dad, when he had a seizure behind the wheel.

“He had to be cut out of his truck,” Taylor said.

She said Farrah is a naturally timid dog, so when the crash happened, she took off.

“Dogs don’t survive out in the wilderness much longer than that,” Taylor said.

The next day, friends, family and complete strangers started looking for Farrah. Salazar said over the three months she was missing, there were times she was spotted on trail cameras, but they were never able to catch her.

“She’s never spent a night outside. She gets a new dog bed every Christmas. She’s pampered,” Taylor said.

After months, a new hope for a missing companion

As fate started to fade on finding Farrah alive, someone with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reached out to Salazar wanting to help find Farrah. So the Sheriff’s Office approved using an infrared drone as training and flew it over the area where Farrah went missing.

“They got out there at 7 a.m. and within 10 minutes of launching, they spotted her,” Salazar said.

She rushed to the spot where they spotted her and sat down on the ground to try and coax scared Farrah to her.

“I sat on the ground and kept throwing chicken. I was just sitting sideways and tossing chicken in her direction. I wasn’t making eye contact with her. The next thing I knew, her head was in my lap. She was rolled over and that was it,” Salazar said.

Farrah went to the vet, where they said she lost about 45 pounds. The vet also said Farrah was probably hit by a car a few weeks before she was found alive.

“Her hip is bad. Her knee is bad. Her kneecap is in the total wrong spot,” Taylor said.

The family has started a GoFundMe to help cover some of those medical bills. You can donate here.

Salazar originally bought Farrah to be an end-of-life companion for her husband, who died of cancer.

“She still likes to go for rides in the car. Which was surprising to me,” Salazar said.

Taylor is thankful to everyone who stepped in to help get Farrah home. Farrah, is pretty thankful too.