By Kim Paskorz

Eagle Staff Writer

HERMITAGE, Mercer County — If only Kutter could talk.

---- Who knows what adventures or misadventures the 2-year-old, red blood hound came across in his four-month odessey on the run in Butler County. Or how he ended up at a tiny animal shelter two hours into Ohio, and recently neutered.

---- “We would still be searching for him if it wasn't for all the wonderful people who came together to help find him,” said owner Debra Fair, 31, of Hermitage.

---- Kutter's travel tail began July 18 at a camp in Parker. Debra Fair and five children went there to celebrate her husband Joe Fair's birthday with a long weekend outing.

---- But just one day into the trip, the commotion of quad runners and gunshots spooked Kutter and he darted off. Joe Fair followed him for about mile before losing sight of him.

---- The search began. At first it was just members of the family making the hour and half trip back to Butler County every couple days, sometimes spending the night in Parker, to look for Kutter and to hang missing posters.

---- Then tips stated rolling in. People recognized Kutter from the posters in trhe area between the camp in Parker and Harrisville, where the family had gone for a family reunion.

---- “He'd been trained to track the children,” Debra Fair speculated of pure bred's choice of directions.

---- In addition to posters, Debra Fair said she began reaching out to the world on the Internet, specifically lost and found sights and ultimately creating her own Facebook page called, “Come Home Kutter.”

---- People she'd never met joined in the effort offering their time to search. At one point a trained, certified search dog joined the hunt.

---- “All these wonderful people started joining in and I didn't even know their names,” Debra Fair said. “Some of them even searched on their own when we couldn't make it.”

---- Most of the “Kutter Group” were residents Butler County, but with the reach of the Internet of their side, it wasn't unusual for someone a great distance away to join in the search. For example, after one Kutter sighting, a lady from Pittsburgh — a stranger — dropped everything to get to the location quickly and search.

---- But each trip ended fruitlessly as Kutter moved on before his search team arrived.

---- The last sighting came Sept. 3. Someone in the Harrisville area was able to snap a couple photographs of a dog matching Kutter's description. In them, he's looking a little mangy and mated with a gash on his flank, but he's still wearing his black collar and Mercer County dog tags.

---- “So we had hope,” Debra Fair said. “But then there was nothing.”

---- Months went by without any reportings. But the family never gave up, noting the days and sometimes even the hours Kutter had been lost on the Internet page.

---- To make matters worse, during that time the family ran into some hardships and lost its vehicle. So Debra Fair did what she could from home: Broadened her Internet postings to surrounding states like New York and Ohio.

---- “The search was taking a toll on us financially, physically and emotionally but we never would have given up,” Debra Fair said. “The hardest part was watching my kids … watching them call out his name.”

---- The family had rescued Kutter as a pup from upstate New York, one year after losing a beloved blue tick hound.

---- “He was a surprise for my son,” Debra Fair said.

---- Four months to the day Kutter went missing, on Nov. 18, the winning tip came in. Someone spotted Kutter on a Website belonging to a small animal shelter in Coshocton, Ohio.

---- But the danger wasn't over. Because Kutter was deemed an older dog and had acted aggressively, the shelter put him on a 72-hour hold only.

---- Again, the Kutter Group rallied. Someone lent the family a vehicle, another person gave them gas money and yet another not only paid the adoption fee but sent a donation to the shelter to buy a universal scanner. Kutter had a location chip in him, but because the shelter did not have that piece of equipment, it was unable to read the chip.

---- Joe Fair drove to the shelter,

---- “As soon as they let him out, he responded to German commands and everyone was shocked,” Debra Fair said, explaining that they'd trained Kitter using German words so that if he was mixed into a group of hounds, their commands would be unique and Kutter wouldn't be confused by other people's directives. “Even my kids learned German.”

---- Kutter is home now, and a veterinarn appointment is scheduled for today. He's a little skittish from his ordeal, but still responds to the family.

---- “This was devine intervention,” Debra Fair said. “None of us slept the night he came home. We were so excited.”

---- Debra Fair believes someone had possession of Kutter in those last, missing weeks. The dog was found well-fed, but recently neutered.

---- “He was never neutered before,” Debra Fair said.

---- Debra Fair is going to keep the “Come Home Kutter” Facebook page active as a reminder to pet owners never to give up on lost animals and potentially raise awareness for the need for donations to small animal shelters.

---- “Miracles do happen,” she said.