By Deborah Guziak
Record-Courier staff writer
SUFFIELD " Maggie is back home with her family after a Congress Lake Road teen found the missing dog two weeks after she escaped a house fire.
Matthew Heater, 13, refused the $1,000 reward Maggie's owners, Rick and Jayelen Oaks, tried to give him.
"They just lost everything in a fire," Matthew explained. "That would be mean to take any money."
Maggie was tossed out the door of her owners' Galaxy Drive home on July 20 when they discovered it was on fire. Maggie, a sheltie, is afraid of fireworks, and propane tanks that were in the garage had exploded, said Maggie's "mom," Jayelen Oaks. It sent the frightened dog running.
Where Maggie went or how she survived during the two weeks she was missing is unknown.
Once during Maggie's absence, Jayelen Oaks saw her dog in the cornfield and called for her. Maggie didn't come to her. The sheltie's veterinarian recommended that Jayelen Oaks return to the field with a bowl of food and wait.
"I brought a book and sat for an hour," Jayelen Oaks said. "She didn't come. It was so hard to leave."
Matthew was riding his 4-wheeler last week and saw Maggie in the field. He didn't know the dog was missing and went to visit with his grandparents. It was there that he saw a flier advertising Maggie's disappearance, said Matthew's mother, Laura Heater.
Matthew hurried back to the spot where he had seen Maggie.
Now, knowing the dog's name, he called for her, and she came.
"She looked really healthy," said Matthew, who speculated Maggie came to his families' home and ate dog food that had been left out for the familys' dogs.
Then came the happy part " calling the Oaks family.
"I spoke to the daughter, and I said "I think we found your dog,'" Laura Heater said. "Her mom must've been in the background picking up a word here and there, because I heard her screaming, "Did they find my dog?' and things like that. The daughter kept telling her to be quiet because she couldn't hear."
Then Laura Heater had a terrible thought " what if the dog wasn't Maggie, and she'd gotten the family's hopes up for nothing?
"She (Alysha Oaks, the daughter) asked me if the dog had one ear up and one ear down," Laura Heater said. "I said "please, Lord, let there be one ear up and one ear down. I turned around and looked at the dog, and sure enough, one ear was up and the other was down."
The Oaks family was waiting at the end of the driveway for the Heater family and Maggie to arrive.
Soon, Maggie was back in the loving arms of family members, and they were trying to give Matthew a check for a reward.
Rick Oaks wouldn't take "no" for an answer, and unbeknownst to the Heater family, he had tossed the check into their car.
"We were on our way home when my mother found the check in the car," Laura Heater said. "She said, "Matthew, they gave you a check for $100.' She gave the check to Matthew, and he looked at it and said, "That's not a hundred, grandma. It's a thousand.'"
Matthew returned the check.
"When we returned the dog, he said, "Ma, I think this is the best day of my life,'" Laura Heater said.
"He is my hero," Jayelen Oaks said.