Ken and Doreen Osselborn enjoy time with their dog, Christmas, at their home in Mount Chestnut. The border collie, above, was returned to them after an adventure to western Ohio and back that covered several days and many miles.

MOUNT CHESTNUT — A border collie that wandered away from home last week took a detour to Dayton, Ohio, before returning to Butler County.

Doreen Osselborn, who owns the 6-year-old dog named Christmas, speculates her pet got loose early on the morning of July 13 through a door left ajar at their home in Mount Chestnut.

Since the dog has never ventured more than a short distance to visit neighbors, Osselborn was surprised when a family in Kittanning posted a "Found" ad in the Butler Eagle classifieds. Osselborn was even more surprised to discover the family encountered Christmas at a horse show in Dayton.

Beth Mitchell, whose children were working at the show with their 4-H group, was offered the dog after she stopped to pet it.

"The lady said 'Do you want her?'" Mitchell said, explaining how the woman described picking up the dog up on Route 422 while driving from Punxsutawney to the horse show. Mitchell said the woman could not pinpoint the location and was unwilling to take the dog back to search for its owner.

"She was going to give it to whoever wanted it," Mitchell said.

"She said it was in the middle of the road and she didn't want it to get hit."

Although Christmas was not wearing her dog tag, she was wearing a blue collar, Mitchell said — obviously not a stray.

Her 14-year-old twins, Luke and Emily, took care of the dog after returning home."They had given her a bath and brushed her and played with her. It just made me sick that somebody was missing her. You could tell somebody was missing her," Mitchell said.Osselborn discovered the ad July 15 while preparing to run a "Lost" ad in the paper.She reunited with Christmas that evening at an ice cream shop partway to Kittanning, where Mitchell also had posted fliers."It was a happy reunion," Mitchell said. "I laughed because I said we found Christmas in July.""We don't have dogs right now, but we are currently looking for one — but I didn't want somebody else's dog," she added."We have animals, and if I lost my dog, I'd want somebody to do it for me.""We were all reunited," Osselborn said. "And I can't thank these people enough. We were offering a reward for anyone who found her, and they wouldn't even take the reward."Osselborn and her family have had Christmas since puppyhood.The family now is considering taking Christmas to the vet to have a microchip identification tag inserted under her skin.